The Breeze of Dusk with the Scent of Musk

Chapter 12: The Harrowing Ordeal

In the Ruby Kingdom in the Breeze Province in the Lightning City, Zixin Quon pretended that arming his farmers was for good reasons: to make his farmers well-prepared to protect his trade from bandits when they travel across the Chinese cities. However, this claim was only a mask behind which Zixin concealed his real intention for arming the farmers. Zixin's real motivation for arming the farmers was for carrying out a coup against the government. Zixin's ambition was to become the emperor of the Chinese Empire and the only way to achieve this was through a coup.

Before carrying out the coup, Zixin wanted to join the Chinese government and become part of it so that he knows more and better about inner parts of the government. An insider knows much more about an organization than an outsider. Zixin wanted to understand the components of the government, the different relationships among people in the government, the organization of the Chinese army, etc.

To join the Chinese government, Zixin had an intelligent plan. He wanted to create a vacant position for himself in the Chinese government by killing one of the imperial ministers: the Imperial Minister of Finance, Wesheng Zihao. According to Zixin's plan, once Zixin assassinate

Wesheng Zihao and his position becomes vacant, Zixin will bribe some ministers so that those ministers will nominate Zixin for the position of the Imperial Minister of Finance in front of the emperor. Due to Zixin's good record and standing with the emperor and the Chinese government, Zixin anticipated that the emperor will welcome the nomination of Zixin as the best candidate to fill the position of the Imperial Minister of Finance. Zixin was not certain about the emperor's decision to choose him over others for the position but he conjectured with great likelihood that the emperor will prefer him to others for this vacant position.

Zixin is currently the leader of the philanthropic project located in the Lightning City and he needs to move to the Jasmine City to stay close to the imperial government. Therefore, Zixin ordered his cousin Guang who is the leader of the philanthropic project in the Jasmine City to swap his position with him. In other words, Zixin will move to the Jasmine City to lead the philanthropic project there while Guang will return to the Lightning City.

After Zixin saw that his farmers are well-prepared and competent enough to carry out a military operation in his favor, he ordered one group of his farmers to assassinate Wesheng Zihao, the Imperial Minister of Finance without leaving a trace. The military unit successfully assassinated Wesheng Zihao while he was returning home in his procession. The assassination of Wesheng Zihao put the government into a state of chaos. The police was carrying out thorough investigations to identify and detain the assassins. Since Zixin's military force left no trace in the assassination spot, the job of the government of identifying the assassins was made harder.

Emperor Wei Jian was curious to identify the assassins of Wesheng Zihao and the motivations behind the assassination. At the same time, he wanted to fill the vacant position of the Imperial Minister of Finance. So he consulted his cabinet ministers about nominating the suitable person for the position. The few ministers that were bribed by Zixin nominated Zixin as the best candidate for the vacant position. The emperor admired Zixin for being a successful businessman and for rendering so many meritorious services to the Chinese government and people. After the emperor heard the nominations of the cabinet ministers, he agreed to appoint Zixin for the position. Some cabinet ministers opposed the emperor's decision of appointing Zixin for the vacant position claiming that Zixin is not experienced with the business of the government. The emperor supported his decision by claiming that Zixin has good leadership and management skills that he accumulated over the years for running his farms with a large number of farmers. At the end of the meeting, the emperor could convince the cabinet ministers of his decision. Finally, the emperor made a conclusive decision that Zixin is the new Imperial Minister of Finance. Zixin was summoned to be informed about his new position and inauguration.