A new and unfamiliar quiet descended upon the Grand Council chamber. It was the quiet of a storm that has passed, leaving behind a landscape that is irrevocably altered. Cixi, the woman who had dominated the court with an iron will for over a decade, had been escorted from the hall. She was no longer the all-powerful West Dowager Empress, but a political prisoner on her way to a comfortable, but permanent, exile. Her departure left a vacuum of power that was immediately and decisively filled.
A new sense of order, crisp and efficient, settled over the room. Prince Gong and Empress Dowager Ci'an, now the clear and undisputed regents of the Great Qing, stood side by side on the dais. But every eye in the room kept flicking towards the small boy who stood beside them, his hand still holding Ci'an's. They were beginning to understand who the true center of this new power was.
The first act of the new regency was to deal with the remnants of Cixi's shattered faction. The most prominent and most dangerous of these was her chief spider, the head eunuch Li Lianying. He was dragged into the hall in chains, his fine silk robes torn and dirtied, his face a mask of abject terror. He threw himself onto the floor before the dais, kowtowing so deeply his forehead scraped against the cold stone.
"Mercy, Your Imperial Majesties! Mercy!" he wailed, his voice a pathetic cry. "This servant was only following orders! I was a loyal dog to my mistress! I knew nothing of these treasonous plots! I am innocent!"
Prince Gong looked down at the groveling eunuch with utter contempt. "Innocent?" his voice boomed. "You were the head of this nest of spies and traitors. You were the chief architect of the Empress's corruption. You managed her stolen funds and directed her assassins. You deserve the death of a thousand cuts, and even that would be too merciful."
The Prince looked to Ci'an, ready to pronounce the sentence of execution that everyone in the room expected. But before the Empress Dowager could speak, a small, clear voice cut through the tense silence. It was the Emperor.
"No," Ying Zheng said. He let go of Ci'an's hand and took a small step forward, looking down at the terrified eunuch on the floor. "Killing him is a waste."
The entire court stared at the boy, stunned by his intervention.
"His network of spies may be broken," Ying Zheng continued, his voice calm and unnervingly logical, "but he still possesses the knowledge. He knows where every corrupt official has buried his silver. He knows every secret, every weakness, every crime that his former allies have ever committed." He paused, then looked at the trembling Li Lianying. "He will now work for us."
A wave of confusion and shock passed through the assembled ministers.
"From this day forward," Ying Zheng declared, his voice taking on a chilling authority that made the hairs on the back of every man's neck stand on end, "Li Lianying will be appointed the head of the newly formed 'Office of Imperial Anti-Corruption.' He will use his intimate knowledge of their crimes to hunt down every last one of his former allies. He will root out the corruption that he himself helped to plant. His own survival," he concluded, his gaze locking onto the terrified eunuch, "will depend entirely upon his zeal in destroying the very web he created."
It was a move of pure, breathtaking, Qin Shi Huang pragmatism and cruelty. It was a sentence far worse than death. He was not just executing his enemy; he was turning him into a tool, a bloodhound forced to hunt its own pack. He was condemning Li Lianying to a life of perpetual fear, hated by his old friends and distrusted by his new masters, his only hope for survival being his ability to systematically betray everyone he had ever worked with. It was a brilliant, terrifying stroke that would not only purge the court but would also ensure that the new regime had a master of secrets firmly on its leash.
Li Lianying stared up at the small boy, his mind reeling. He saw no childish innocence in the Emperor's eyes. He saw an ancient, cold, and utterly ruthless intelligence that was far more terrifying than Cixi's hot-tempered rage. He understood his fate. He pressed his forehead back to the floor, his wails of mercy replaced by frantic, desperate declarations of his newfound, undying loyalty.
The court was left speechless. They were finally beginning to understand the true nature of the small boy on the throne. The "divine insight" they had all whispered about was not a passive, mystical gift. It was an active, strategic, and terrifyingly cold intelligence. They had exchanged one ruthless ruler for another, but this new one was something else entirely.
The new order was established with a swiftness that left the bureaucracy breathless. Prince Gong took direct control of the Grand Council and the military. Empress Dowager Ci'an, now the sole, respected senior regent, provided the legitimacy and moral authority for their actions. Viceroy Li Hongzhang was put in charge of a new "Office of Modernization," tasked with overseeing the industrial projects the Emperor had envisioned. Weng Tonghe was recalled from the archives and reinstated, not as a tutor, but as a key advisor to Ci'an, his reputation restored. Shen Ke was given a formal, if quiet, position in the new audit office, a perfect cover for his real work as the head of the Emperor's intelligence analysis.
A new era had dawned in the Forbidden City. Cixi, the great dragoness, was gone. A new, unified regency, secretly and completely controlled by Ying Zheng, was in place. As he stood on the dais, flanked by his loyal regents, he looked out at the sea of bowing heads. He, the boy-emperor, was now, for the first time, the true, undisputed master of this palace, of this court, of this dynasty. He had won the throne. His Second Reign was no longer a secret war. It was now the official, driving policy of the state.
Now, his true work of reforging an empire could begin.