Gideon couldn't help but applaud Jiang Yue for having the initiative to tell him about that. For him, her plan was so flawless that he himself could just sit there, feeling calm and assured that this incident would be over soon.
Jiang Yue also told him another thing, which made him speechless. The Queen was using an arsenic type of slow-acting poison, which was laced in the papers with calligraphy that she always gifted him. Li Hong Yi always loved calligraphy and the Queen had taken advantage of that.
After just a few months of being married to her, Gideon remembered, the Queen gave him the first calligraphy painting, which he always liked from then on. A year after that, he started showing some symptoms of poisoning. Although he knew he was being poisoned, he always assumed that it was something that he had taken in with his food and drinks. He never thought that it was something that he had touched.
Then, he thought about how Li Jun loathed those gifts and always compared them to Wang Ruo's works. Because of that, he never touched or even looked at them. At that time, he would only laugh at his friend's comments about the paintings. Now, he felt thankful that Li Jun never spent any time with those gifts.
Or else, he would have suffered from the poison himself.
"Enough!" He sternly said after most of the Cabinet members were already in an argument with each other. He then turned his gaze towards Prime Minister Li. "I want to change the financial budget that we have for this year and give half of the allocated budget for Military enhancements to the Food and Agriculture sector."
"I beg to disagree with Your Highness." The Prime Minister immediately chimed in. "This will weaken our security forces. If the rebels and militants take advantage of this and attack us, then all of the citizens will suffer."
"Prime Minister Li… if our soldiers are already dead from starvation, then how will we be able to fight those militants?" He asked, making everyone look at the Prime Minister. This was actually the first time that Gideon's tone became so sarcastic towards the Prime Minister and a lot of the Cabinet members were very curious about the latter's reaction.
"With all due respect…" the Prime Minister said with a sullen expression. "I am also concerned with the welfare of the country…"
"Is that why you want them to starve?" Gideon asked, making the Prime Minister speechless. He looked at Gideon as fear started making him doubt his previous decision of siding with the Kim Family in this power struggle. Why did it seem like Gideon was very confident of his actions?
As a dying man, he should be afraid now.
"I… I did not say such a thing my King…" he denied.
"Then, tell me... Do you have any alternative solution, other than using that money?" Gideon asked. "Can you suggest a better option?"
The Prime Minister swallowed all the words that he wanted to say to the King once he heard his question. Actually, he had none. Someone from the Kim Family told him to rebut everyone who would suggest that. They wanted to make it sound to all the Cabinet member as if it was Jiang Yue who would not agree to use that money.
However, he did not really think of any possible solution for this problem…
"We can…" he stuttered before looking at everyone in the room who was also looking at him.
"We can…"
Seeing the Prime Minister choking on his own words, Gideon fixed his gaze on the Cabinet members. "Use 20% of the allocated budget for the military… I want it all documented. Import some basic goods from other countries, including food and medicine."
Military Technology had the biggest allocated budget in the country. It took a whopping 30% of the total financial budget every year. Because of that, the military in M Country was top notch and well developed.
However, Jiang Yue had already told Gideon to make that move last night. She had also told him to use his authority and suppress both the Prime Minister and the Queen. He should make it hard for them to make any moves.
Though Jiang Yue did not tell him the reasons for her orders, Gideon had already known that she was also planning a counterattack against the Kim Family. With these in mind, he could only wait and put his trust in Jiang Yue for now.
Then, when the right time came, he would also do what Li Jun had instructed in his letter.
Annihilate the Kim Family into ashes.
....
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Edited by: Yui