Demoness, where are you Fleeing to?
Chapter 843 - 701: The King’s Triumph

Chapter 843: Chapter 701: The King’s Triumph

About a quarter hour later, Leng Yurou, holding the five million taels of final payment given by Li Xuan, left the military commander’s residence satisfied.

Lv Qiluo couldn’t wait to rush out from within Li Xuan’s body and enter her puppet body.

She immediately used mana to conjure a set of clothes to cover her naked body and then glared at Li Xuan with a hostile expression, "You, you really are a pervert! Utterly shameless!"

This guy had just looked her puppet body up and down for a good while, not missing a single detail.

Li Xuan responded with righteous indignation, clearly displeased, "What is Lady Lv talking about? I was just examining your body. For your puppet body, I have spent a good eight million taels. If there were any problems, wouldn’t that be a huge loss?"

He then even turned the tables, "This is outrageous! However lustful I could be, I couldn’t possibly be interested in an underage girl or a metallic machine. Lady Lv, where do you place my character?"

However, his pupils shimmered with unusual light, the loli state of Lv Qiluo, and her current adolescent state, gave Li Xuan a peculiar feeling.

Strangely enough, with Lv Qiluo’s change of appearance, the flavor was completely different.

Moreover, Leng Yurou’s workmanship was actually quite impressive this time, and he found himself understanding those modern ’doll enthusiasts’.

Lv Qiluo found it difficult to discern the truth in Li Xuan’s words; the terms ’underage girl’ and ’metallic machine’ filled her with an embarrassed rage and she gritted her teeth.

However, she currently had no effective countermeasures, leaving her helpless against Li Xuan.

Although Lv Qiluo held a lot of Li Xuan’s weaknesses and could overturn him anytime, she was not the type of person who liked stirring up troubles.

Lv Qiluo could only coldly snort, keeping a stern tally in her heart.

She then turned serious, "Li Xuan, do you really intend to promote those machines? This is truly a method that will harm the common people. I’ve seen the silk-reeling machines made by the Shenqi Union; one machine equals the work of a hundred people, which means taking food from a hundred people. Why is this necessary? If it is widely adopted, countless people won’t have food to eat."

Li Xuan smiled wryly, "That’s not quite how you calculate it. I have my thoughts on this matter; you don’t need to worry about it."

Indeed, one machine does take the jobs of a hundred people, but the logistics and sales sectors could create some new jobs. The common folk could stop weaving and silk-reeling, focusing their extra time on livestock breeding instead.

Li Xuan wondered how else he could increase societal wealth if not by improving production efficiency?

Industrialization and future automation indeed took away many people’s jobs, and capitalist exploitation became progressively worse. But indeed, they made people’s lives better, the material wealth richer, and living generally easier.

Was forcing people to toil day in and day out in manual labor or to scrabble in the fields really better?

Moreover, his tax reforms on commerce depended entirely on these factories.

Just like Ming Dynasty, Jin Dynasty had no commercial taxes whatsoever.

For three hundred years, successive officials of Jin also recognized the issue but no one dared to step over this boundary.

Li Xuan too did not dare to begin levying commercial taxes. He knew with Jin’s current bureaucratic system, any new type of tax would ultimately be passed down to the common people, putting immense pressure on them.

Rebuilding a national commercial tax system would be incredibly troublesome.

Even if it was successfully established, wealthy merchants had their ways to evade taxes, and it would only be the small traders who’d truly bear the burden of the commercial taxes.

Therefore, Li Xuan’s hopes for reforming commercial taxes relied entirely on these factories.

Once these factories were completed, he planned to levy a ’value-added tax’ directly on factory-produced goods. Even adding a tax of ten or twenty percent, these cotton fabrics and silks would still be much cheaper than handmade goods.

And a value-added tax was undoubtedly the least painful type of tax for the people.

Li Xuan estimated that there wouldn’t be much opposition from the public. The Court imposing taxes on the job-snatching machines? That’s excellent; they should indeed tax them more.

The mode of taxation would be even simpler; just monitor the output volumes of these factories for taxation.

Li Xuan adhered to one principle: in an era of bureaucratic inefficiency, the policies adopted by the Court should aim for simplicity.

The simpler and more straightforward, the harder it would be for officials to exploit the system.

And he should also avoid openly touching the existing privileges; it’s best to steal the cake without anyone noticing.

However, industrialization could cause severe water pollution in various places.

If Li Xuan didn’t want to lose the dragon clan as an ally, he would have to make efforts in treating industrial wastewater from the start.

Fortunately, in this world, there were things like Taoist talisman arrays. Li Xuan had already tasked Tianshi’s mansion with researching the appropriate talisman arrays.

These talisman arrays were not difficult to create, but Li Xuan’s requirement was to minimize costs as much as possible.

All in all, Li Xuan had an entire strategy planned for the future governance.

Explaining it, however, would be very complicated. Li Xuan didn’t plan on detailing everything to Lv Qiluo; he shook his head, "Rather than worrying about my governance, you might consider finding me one or two more external incarnations."

While speaking, Li Xuan pointed at the documents piled up almost to the ceiling next to him: "Look at these! Didn’t you want me to compete for the throne as Heaven Emperor? But I simply don’t have the time for that right now."

Lv Qiluo wasn’t moved, "Don’t try to fool me; I know that there aren’t many here that genuinely need your attention. All they require are just some signatures. Once your trained assistants get the hang of it, you will only be more relaxed."

Then her expression shifted slightly, "What you actually need is not external incarnations, but you want to use these incarnations to speed up your martial arts research. Yet, actually, there’s a much simpler and convenient way right before your eyes, saving you dozens of times more time; there’s no need to ask this of me."

"Oh?" Li Xuan’s eyes brightened with curiosity, "I would like to hear more about it."

"Shaosiming!" Lü Qiluo pointed in the direction of the Jiangnan Medical Hall, "The ’Immortal Slashing Order’ in her hands, together with the ’Haotian Divine Seal’ in your hands, are keys to the ’Zhoutian Stars Array’ of the third-generation Heavenly Court."

Li Xuan’s body trembled slightly, displaying astonishment.

This was because the ’Zhoutian Stars Array’ was famously known in this realm as the great protective formation of several generations of the Heavenly Court.

It is said that the array requires the forging of three hundred and sixty-five major Zhoutian star banners, corresponding to the three hundred and sixty-five main stars in the sky; additionally, fourteen thousand eight hundred minor Zhoutian star banners are needed, each corresponding to one of the fourteen thousand eight hundred secondary stars. Coupled with the power of billions of gods and demons, each representing a star, they could form the extraordinarily powerful Zhoutian Stars Array.

Using the Sun Star and the Taiyin Star as the main array’s eyes, the three hundred and sixty-five major Zhoutian star banners as the foundation, the fourteen thousand eight hundred minor Zhoutian star banners as the trunk, and the power of billions of gods and demons as branches and leaves, connecting the power of the Zhoutian stars together, its formidable power and presence are indeed vast—

"These two items, although they can’t help you control the array, can still allow you to make some calculations with the Zhoutian Stars Array, how should I put it?"

Lü Qiluo pondered for a moment, "This function is quite similar to the supercomputer you mentioned to Yurou, its computing power is exceptionally strong. The former emperor once used this array to deduce a method of body refinement in one day that was no less profound than the Bajiu Technique."

Li Xuan’s eyes immediately surged with emotions.

"There’s more." Lü Qiluo’s lips curled into a smile, her expression meaningful, "If you are not afraid of tipping the boat, you might also try to gain a favor. If you could win Shaosiming’s heart, what she could offer you would be worth three to five East Islands."

Li Xuan couldn’t help but laugh out loud, thinking whether he was someone who would bow down for gain?

He could guarantee with a thump on his chest that his relationships with all the close female friends around him were based purely on genuine feelings, without mixing any personal gains.

Lü Qiluo’s voice continued in a lingering tone, "I know her identity. Although she calls herself ’Yuan Taiwei,’ she is actually a princess from the Pre-Qin Dynasty, and even the most beloved princess of the First Emperor.

She can help you obtain all the treasures buried in the First Emperor’s tomb, but the most valuable would be the 1.2 million Qin army souls sealed within the terracotta warriors. Each without exception can be transformed into ’heavenly soldiers.’ Thus, with her assistance, your position as the Heaven Emperor would not only be stable, but you could have a certainty of twenty to thirty percent."

Li Xuan couldn’t help but draw a cold breath, thinking that Shaosiming truly had a certain ’fragrance,’ and he almost couldn’t maintain his own Liuli Haoqi.

※※※※

Once Lü Qiluo became a bit more accustomed to her body, she left the military governor’s office, avoiding Li Xuan as if fearful of something, and headed to the Shen Nong Institution.

Li Xuan also breathed a sigh of relief. It was quite stressful to be ’sneaky’ with Luo Yan and the others with a loli ghost attached to him.

There were many special maneuvers he couldn’t practice, and Li Xuan’s face was not yet thick enough to ignore everything entirely.

He then buried his head in paperwork until the early next morning, finally managing to handle all the accumulating official documents of the military governor’s office.

At the Hour of Chen, Li Xuan, dressed in a king’s robe and layered over with the Liudao Fumo Armor, fully armed, rode his horse into the Forbidden City.

Along the way, almost every Jingying soldier would solemnly kneel to the ground, either greeting him or calling out a thousand years of life.

All the ministers participating in the court session along the way also made way and showed respect.

This was not out of respect for the title of County Prince, but for the undefeated martial god of the Great Jin Dynasty.

As Li Xuan stepped into Taihe Gate, including the Grand Secretary Chen Xun, all the ministers showed a solemn expression, feeling an incomparably magnificent and heavy presence approaching.

It is remembered that four months ago, the court of the Great Jin Dynasty was internally and externally troubled, struggling to move forward.

Some pessimists even thought that the court was tottering, at best able to last another year or so.

However, in less than four months, the situation had changed drastically.

Although there was still Prince Yi, Yu Jianshen holding out resistance in Xi’an, it was no longer a serious problem.

And all of this was because of the County Prince Fenyang they saw before them.

Li Xuan had successively captured Tuotuobuhua alive and subdued Prince Ning and the Xiangwang Manor, sweeping across the world with a three-foot long knife, clearing the evil atmosphere.

This not only built an invincible reputation for Li Xuan on the battlefield but also brought tremendous pressure to the court officials.

"The first issue of today’s court discussion is the selection of the chief butler for south Zhili," said the chief butler Qian Long of the Sili Bureau standing before the steps in front of Yu Hongshang, scanning the ministers, "This issue has been in debate in the court for three months without a decision, it can no longer be delayed."

In the early years of the Jin Dynasty, thirteen Jiancha Yushi were set under the Inspectorate, along with north and south Zhili, totaling one hundred and seventy people. As the 7th-rank officials, they were divided to oversee and inspect the thirteen provinces and north and south Zhili, charged with ’rectifying official evils, spreading governing principles, revising penal codes, and inspecting ceremonies,’ and were called ’Xunan Yushi.’"

Moreover, each province had a principal official named ’chief butler.’

And now, what they were discussing was the main official selection for the twenty odd Jiancha Yushi of south Zhili.

"This is simple!" Li Xuan waved his robe sleeves, "Since the regent ministers cannot decide, then let’s submit it to the court for discussion!"

In an instant, including Chen Xun and Yu Jie along with many regent ministers present couldn’t help but feel a twinge of annoyance, their faces twitching involuntarily.

This was exactly what they least wanted to see. Once the matter is submitted for court discussion, it would escape the control of these regent ministers.

This was also what the officials of the 3rd-rank and above wanted to see since only by entering court discussion could they have a voice in the personnel affairs of the court.

However, the final say in these personnel matters would fall into the hands of the Regent Princess, Yu Hongshang.