Chapter ninety-nine 

Four months later

Ying Zetian was sat on the imperial throne for one of her usual morning sessions. Although Ying Zetian was lazy at heart, but she abides strongly by the policy of working hard as the emperor as she has one country of citizens depending on her. As usual Ying Zetian was reading one of the reports that her men and officials had sent her while she wait for the army and civil officials to finish arguing. Since Ying Zetian also abide of the policy of letting people fight out their frustrations, she will normally wait for the army and civil officials to finish arguing while she read the reports.

Or Ying Zetian will spend her time looking at Tang Wudi who was sitting on the empress throne that was one step below the emperor throne to ease her boredom if there are no reports. And normally Tang Wudi will be an effective cure for her boredom as his eyes will always turn violet when he looks at her and she will spend her time glaring at him. The enmity between the civil and army officials has gone on for centuries and is not so easily uprooted by Ying Zetian even when the officials are seriously afraid of their new emperor.

Although some measures that Ying Zetian has taken for the future of her empire has lessen the enmity between the army and civil officials as the measures had risen the stand of the army officials in the society. But the report that Ying Zetian is reading from her men now is raising her temper seriously high and her eyes start to twitch in anger.

Ying Zetian's focus on building her manpower while she was carving her empire out for over a decade come into effect during these times. Ying Zetian with her inner strength threw the report who was written on wood at the official who was overall in charge of customs of her empire and a previous official of Tai Ping. As Ying Zetian was too cheapskate in throwing other things at the officials so she given orders for reports to be written on wood so when thrown, she could still injure them.

Ying Zetian while tapping one of her hands on the throne said softly but with inner strength, she was clearly audible and all the more a terror to the officials at the softness of the tone she was speaking. Based on four months of experience, the officials knew when Ying Zetian is yelling, they will still be fine and once her tone get soft, it means someone will be going to hell immediately "My dear officials if you forget how I change the dynasty, let me give you an example today of the consequences of not carrying out my orders to the dot!"

Ying Zetian then immediately signals for her men to lopped off the official in charge of customs and orders also for the exile of his family. And also, Ying Zetian had given orders for the other two officials that were in the same group with the customs official head to be lopped off, only sparing the families of the other two officials. And of course, the sight of this three official's head being lopped off in front of them without even being dragged out of the imperial throne room was a very effective cure in the arguments that is carrying on between the army and civil officials.

In fact, Ying Zetian was seriously happy that these old officials have given her a chance to get rid of them and also let her show them the seriousness of how she wanted her measures to be implemented. One of the measures was for three people to be in a group and if any of them committed an offence, the rest of the two people will be liable for the same offence. Of course, Ying Zetian will spare the other two people's family's members. This is one of the measures that Ying Zetian could think up of to ensure that her empire will be run effectively as even her own personal men is large in number, it is still not effective to run an empire just depending on them alone.

Ying Zetian had given orders for new measures for the customs of Wu Zhao when she ascend to the throne. Ying Zetian men all over Wu Zhao had already make a report to her of previous officials of Tai Ping not following her orders and she have already given them a chance to turn over a new life. The report that Ying Zetian have read today is a fresh report from her men to state that one of the same officials who was previously mentioned still do not follow her orders and in fact had taken a big bribe to ensure that one of the murders of that state could escape. Of course, these officials and the other two officials of their group still do not escape the fate of being killed.