Chapter 830 - 60: Enemies Everywhere, The Gu Clan Unsheathes Its Sword

The power these people wield is clearly immense.

In almost no time at all, all kinds of rumors about whether the Gu Clan ought to return governance to the Emperor had spread across the realm.

No, perhaps it is not that these people’s power is so great.

Even if their influence were greater still, how could it possibly surpass that of the Imperial Censorate?

It is simply that there are too many of them!

And what’s more, the matter involves the Gu Clan; that alone is what the people of the realm pay most attention to.

Do not forget, the Gu Clan’s returning power to the throne is itself already a historical precedent.

The deeds of generation after generation have long been passed down in story form, becoming common knowledge in the hearts of the common folk.

The common people naturally do not wish to shatter the current prosperity.

But it still comes back to the same point—

Not everyone is clear‑headed, and even those few who are, will make different choices in the face of immense benefit.

Such is the shackle branded by the ideology of imperial authority.

For the common folk.

They are only too happy to see the Gu Clan return governance, because they have always believed that the Emperor is the Emperor, and the Gu Clan is the Gu Clan.

Even if all power is handed over to the Emperor.

The Gu Clan will always remain the Grand Tutor.

And will always continue to lead the people of the realm in getting things done.

Yes, that is precisely how they think.

It looks naïve, yet it is also the most simple, most genuine outlook of the people.

They do not understand the court’s treacherous currents, still less can they perceive the clash of interests; they simply feel this is the best arrangement for the Gu Clan in relation to the realm as a whole.

This is the soft knife.

What these people say is not entirely wrong.

The Gu Clan’s thousand‑year prestige is indeed one of the foundations of its immortality, but it is also the Gu Clan’s heaviest burden.

Gu Yi had felt this more than once, long ago.

Yet this too is something Gu Yi cannot reverse.

Since the Gu Clan stands upon this foundation, it must inevitably bear the backlash that comes with it.

In all things under heaven there is no such thing as once and for all!

This hurdle, the Gu Clan must pass, no matter what!

...

Yingtian Prefecture, Champion Marquis Mansion.

A crowd of younger Gu clansmen assembled.

"This is bullying gone too far!"

Among the younger generation, the more forthright Gu Yun now had a face full of fury. Staring at one memorial after another from the Imperial Censorate, his eyes were brimming with barely concealed killing intent. "Our Gu Clan has poured out heart and blood for five generations to win this flourishing age of today!"

"Now that the four seas have only just found peace, these parasites cannot wait to leap out, using such insidious methods, scheming to force our Gu Clan to hand over power?"

"They don’t even stop to think—without the Gu Clan, whence today’s grand situation!"

"Yun, mind your tongue." The more steady Gu Zhao pressed his hand down, his brows knotted. "Anger is useless."

"This current talk of returning power, on the surface looks like rumor spun from nothing, but in truth it seizes on two vital points."

"The first is nothing more than the old injunction from when the Taizu Emperor had not yet stabilized the realm, entrusting military and civil authority;

"The second is the fine reputation our Gu Clan has left, generation after generation, for withdrawing once our work is done. No one thought the very bedrock of our Gu Clan’s prestige would now become a sharp blade held to our throats."

At these words, helpless sighs sounded one after another.

"The most troublesome thing is that this line of argument is not empty talk, but comes wrapped in a portion of popular sentiment."

"Quite a few commoners do genuinely believe that now the realm is at peace, the Gu Clan should return the great affairs of state to the Emperor, so that the proper distinctions between ruler and minister are fulfilled, while the Gu Clan can still, as before, serve as Grand Tutor and assist in governance... They... they think this is for our Gu Clan’s good."

Gu Qi had been silently listening, and now slowly spoke, his voice carrying a hint of weariness: "Back in Julu, I too heard such debates."

"Some young students at the academies, swayed by this, even came to ask me whether the Gu Clan ought to follow the example of our forebears, retreating at the height of the current, to secure a fame for the ages."

He let out a bitter laugh. "The people’s hearts are like water: they can bear up a boat, and they can capsize it. The thousand years of prestige our Gu Clan has accumulated have now become shackles that bind our hands and feet."

Indeed, even someone of his bookish, scholarly bent had been drawn in by now.

The impact of this matter was simply too great.

So long as one belonged to the Gu Clan, it was impossible to ignore the surging tide that now swept the realm.

It was the grand tide!

Popular sentiment, the court, merchants, the great families.

It was as if everything across Kyushu now stood arrayed against the Gu Clan.

Though the reasons differed, at bottom they were the same.

And for the Gu Clan, this was not an issue that could simply be handled cleanly and done with, for it touched the reputation of the entire clan; they could be neither too soft nor too hard.

Gu Zhao looked toward Gu Lin, who had kept his eyes shut and said nothing, and spoke in a low voice: "Uncle, this matter is truly thorny."

"If we suppress the talk by force, we risk fixing upon ourselves the label of power‑hungry ministers, staining the Gu Clan’s pure name, delivering ourselves into the very trap those people have laid."

"But if we allow it to run unchecked, this line of argument will only grow more rampant, not only shaking the political situation, but also obstructing the implementation of the New Policies—for example the maritime shipping plan: they will surely seize on this to attack us for hoarding power and seeking profit."

"We are caught whether we advance or retreat!"

Voices of discussion rose without pause.

Nearly all the younger clansmen were laying out the entanglements, and between the lines their meaning was, of course, unwillingness.

Who could possibly be willing?

It had taken five generations of struggle to build the fine situation of today!

One could say—

The Gu Clan’s contribution to the Great Song by now utterly surpassed that of any previous dynasty.

This had nothing to do with the throne, nor with schemes for power.

The Gu Clan truly wanted to see what the entire Kyushu would become if it continued to develop along this path.

But these things, they could not say.

Under the brand of imperial authority and the ideology of ministers, on top of the Gu Clan’s long‑standing tradition of returning power to the Emperor, no matter how unwilling they were, they could not possibly lay all their thoughts bare at a time like this.