Chapter 1282: Chapter 1281: The Night Before the Night Before
The weather in January had already dropped to the extreme; the seawater was beginning to freeze, and some chunks of ice, driven by the waves, formed only to be pushed up onto the beach.
In the end, these blocks of ice piled up into a white crystalline cliff that kept getting higher!
In stark contrast to the bitter cold was the passion of the people of Gafura!
His Majesty the Emperor would officially abolish noble privileges after the fifteenth, and during this period a large number of well-known social activists had sprung up in society.
These people began "spontaneously" explaining to ordinary citizens the latest policy abolishing noble privileges, and the profound impact it would have.
Even though Gafura’s weather could freeze a person to death, people still gathered outdoors...
"Why did the Empire decline immediately after its period of glory?" On a street in the Imperial Capital, a social activist standing on a wooden crate looked solemnly at the citizens surrounding him and asked loudly.
This was beside a small garden on an ordinary street, meant to give passersby a brief rest. Snow lay thick everywhere. People wore heavy clothes, shivering slightly from the cold, yet they were unwilling to leave.
The social activist looked at the people around him and thought to himself that he ought to ask his employer for more money; today’s weather was too cold, and his influence had grown quite a bit now, so naturally his price should go up.
Of course, that was only what he was thinking, not what he was going to say.
Seeing no one answer his question, he proceeded to ask and answer himself, using emphatic gestures to reinforce the power of his words!
"That’s because the nobles helped the Empire ascend to glory, but it’s also because of the nobles that the Empire started on its downward slope!"
"The nobles have a tight grip on the powers of the privileged class and the ruling class. This is extremely unjust to society as a whole, and extremely cruel as well."
"The channels of upward mobility for ordinary people are sealed shut. Even if some of us manage through hard work to gain an opportunity to change our lives, more often than not that opportunity still exists only to serve the nobles!"
"A country whose class structure is completely solidified, where there is never any hope or future—this is why we are going downhill..."
Passersby nodded one after another, voicing their own thoughts. Very quickly these people, these ideas, were clarified with the friendly help of the social activist.
For every extra day the nobles continue to exist, Gafura’s long night will last one more day!
Once noble privileges are abolished, the power structure will be broken up and reshuffled, and the people will have more channels for upward mobility. This will be the start of an entirely new era.
Every time those shivering in the cold wind heard these words, they would instantly become so excited that sweat broke out all over their bodies. They no longer cared about the cold; all that filled their minds was the future measured in seconds!
"Where did all these people come from?"
Behind a window, a high noble withdrew his gaze. Inside the warm room there was no trace of the harsh cold. Every gentleman’s appearance was particularly proper—not so bulky as to look bloated, yet not so thin as to be shivering.
The Prime Minister cast a distant glance at the window and then withdrew his eyes. "No idea who arranged this. We can have the police look into it, but the existence of these people is not necessarily a bad thing for us."
This was a very luxurious room, located right in the city center of the Imperial Capital, not too far from the Imperial Palace.
Most of the houses here belonged to nobles. The closer it was to the Imperial Palace, the less property there was in the hands of ordinary people.
There were still two days left before the Emperor would officially abolish noble privileges, and the high nobles were gathering for one last discussion of what was about to happen.
This high noble was merely a bit surprised at how many such "spontaneous" social activists there had been in the Imperial Capital lately, and sighed about it.
He soon sat back in his seat, and the others also shifted into the proper frame of mind.
In the room were the Prime Minister, high nobles, and those ministers.
The Prime Minister spoke first; he held the highest status here. "I’ve gone through our plan again; there’s nothing wrong with it. Do any of you still have questions?"
Someone raised his hand, then, under everyone’s gaze, said, "How do we make sure the conflict stays within the proper bounds?"
"You know our Majesty’s temper is not very good. If he orders the Imperial Palace Guard to open fire, those guards who are loyal to the Imperial Family will definitely shoot without hesitation."
In the Prime Minister’s plan, when the Emperor formally abolished noble privileges two days from now, the nobles would storm the Imperial Palace.
And that would provide the Prime Minister and the ministers with full justification to break the nobles’ backs.
No matter what the reason, storming the Imperial Palace is wrong. You can argue your case, but you cannot storm the Imperial Palace; that would make the whole world laugh at us.
What this noble was unsure of was how the hot-tempered Emperor would restrain his anger—this was a problem.
He was not worried about whether the nobles would actually do it. Once their privileges were abolished, they would inevitably enter into fierce conflict with the Imperial Family.
Even if they didn’t think of it themselves, the Prime Minister and the high nobles had already arranged for some people to steer the enraged Noble Group into storming the Imperial Palace.
Then these nobles would be punished for their egregious behavior. Not only would their privileges be abolished, many nobles would also be stripped of their titles.
The Noble Group’s storming of the Imperial Palace was a necessary "process." Before making the people shoulder more responsibilities and obligations, they only needed to make them witness destruction.
The Prime Minister shook his head. "There’s no need to worry about that. His Majesty will not give the order to open fire..."
The content of his conversation with His Majesty the Emperor was, for the moment, confined to just the two of them, yet from this sentence, the people in the room basically confirmed that there was some kind of connection between the Prime Minister and the Emperor.
Aside from the fact that at the very beginning the Prime Minister had directly set his sights on the Emperor, as events unfolded, everyone could sense that he and His Majesty the Emperor seemed to have abruptly turned their spearheads toward the Noble Group.
No one knew why the Prime Minister would do this, and no one knew why the Emperor would choose this moment to decide on stripping titles and abolishing privileges.
Aside from intensifying the contradiction between the Imperial Family and the Noble Group, this held no other political purpose of value to the Imperial Family.
From that moment on, they began to suspect that the Prime Minister and His Majesty the Emperor might have some private communication.
The great nobles had never taken a clear stance, the ministers seemed collectively to vanish, and the Emperor had used nothing but stripping titles to completely detonate the hostility between the Noble Group and the Imperial Family.
In fact, apart from at the very start, when the Prime Minister’s idea had been to force the Emperor to step down, by now the goals of "everyone" had already been unified, and that was to deal with the nobles!
Yes—the Prime Minister, the ministers, the great nobles, the Imperial Family, and even the ordinary people out on the street corners in the cold wind shouting slogans around social activists.
Their aims had already been unified: the noble class, the decayed and ossified ruling class!
The Prime Minister thought for a moment, then added, "We also have to consider, appropriately, whether the nobles might take excessively radical actions beyond our expectations. When the time comes, we should strengthen the Imperial Palace’s security forces and conduct security checks on anyone entering the Imperial Palace area..."
The Imperial Palace’s "area" did not refer to just within the palace walls, but also included a portion of the area outside them; it was a very large space.
But there was one thing they did not need to worry too much about: in practice, the places that needed to be covered would not be that many. After all, His Majesty the Emperor would not appear in many locations at once; it would be enough to take care of the environment immediately around him.
Each step was checked over once, some issues were raised for repeated consideration and discussion, and only after confirming there were no problems would they move on to the next item.
From day into night, by the time these people dispersed, it was already deep into the night.
The Prime Minister returned home, and after finishing the work of detainment, he lay down on the bed and let out a deep sigh.
His whole body relaxed along with that sigh.
He would use his own resignation as a bargaining chip to obtain concessions from the Emperor; this too was something they had already agreed upon.
When the Emperor had met him alone, he had acknowledged the Prime Minister’s abilities and at the same time accepted his conditions.
Of course, this would all be after the reforms were completed; by then, the Empire’s first general election would be held.
At the thought of this, the calm surface of the Prime Minister’s mind rippled slightly.
What he was going to do was completely release, through this transformation, the power and light of the people.
The Federation’s development already filled him with an uncontrollable panic. According to the information he had obtained, the technology of Lynch’s Darkstone Airlines came from some civilian scientists and had been further improved.
The Federation’s wild, independent civilian scientists already possessed such terrifying technology; by contrast, the citizens of Gafura... were lifeless.
There were still clearly two days left, yet he was already a little insomniac. He thought about many things—big things, small things, things that hardly counted as things at all...
While the Prime Minister was tossing and turning unable to sleep, the Major also found it hard to sleep.
But compared to the Prime Minister, who lay in bed unable to drift off, the Major was wiping down and maintaining his weapon.
Lambskin, gun oil, meticulous wiping, not missing a single corner.
This weapon would become an important part of history, the Major thought.
Once it fired a single bullet, it would be remembered by history.
He did not know what the world’s pattern would look like after the assassination succeeded or failed; at this moment he had sunk into a very peculiar emotional state.
A bit exhilarated, a bit exhausted, and also somewhat numb—or rather, indifferent—yet unable to sleep.
The smell of gun oil made him feel much better; only when he gripped this cold iron thing could he feel a measure of strength.
He assembled the freshly maintained weapon, then chambered a single round.
This gun had no magazine, because it was impossible for it to fire a second shot, and there was no need for a second shot.
Without a magazine, it was actually easier to conceal.
He picked up the small card on the table; it laid out the evacuation route. He would leave by car at the first possible moment.
As long as he reached the coast, the great escape would be basically accomplished: he would take a boat to the offshore waters, where a submarine would be waiting for him...
After confirming that he would not forget, he lit the small card on fire and, by the light of the little flame, lit a cigarette for himself.
Under the dim light—one man, one gun, one cigarette...
