Demoness, where are you Fleeing to?
Chapter 974 - 804: The Butt Indeed Determines the Brain (Seeking Subscriptions and Monthly Votes)

Chapter 974: Chapter 804: The Butt Indeed Determines the Brain (Seeking Subscriptions and Monthly Votes)

The Junior Secretary from the Ministry of Personnel instantly turned ashen-faced, seeking help with his eyes as he looked toward the few regent ministers.

However, including Quan Dingtian, the Minister of Revenue, and Yu Jie, the Shaofu, almost all the regent ministers present were cold-faced and silent.

The Minister of Personnel, He Wenyuan, not only turned a blind eye to this but also harbored a sense of anger.

He even believed that this was not a mere slip of the tongue but a deliberate act with a hidden agenda and malicious intent.

How could a Junior Secretary of the Ministry of Personnel, who was not new to the political arena, not know the importance of speaking and acting with caution in the palace?

With a large group of 3rd and 4th-rank officials remaining silent, why would a mere Junior Secretary dare to speak up and utter such delusional words?

Was he truly ignorant of the fact that this matter involved the imperial lineage and was extremely sensitive, or did he have an ulterior motive?

What infuriated He Wenyuan was that this person was from his own Ministry of Personnel.

Following the reprimands of Wang Wen, several generals from the army of Weisuo quickly dragged the Junior Secretary from the Ministry of Personnel away.

The Minister of Rites Hu Ying watched this scene with cold eyes, making no move to intervene.

A few years ago, when Jingtai Emperor was preparing to bestow the title of Imperial Grandson on Yu Youlong, Hu Ying would have argued if he had known about it.

But the current situation was different from that of Jingtai Emperor’s era—

The Great Jin Dynasty under the governance of the Princess and the Prince of Fenyang was peaceful and harmonious, and the river was clear and the sea was calm.

Aside from Shaanxi, where wars never ceased, which part of the country was not enjoying peace and prosperity, with people living in safety and abundance of food and clothing?

Even the most critical person had to admit that the years since the Emperor’s ascension to the throne were unprecedentedly prosperous and well-governed in the history of the Jin Dynasty.

In Hu Ying’s view, even if the son of the Princess and the Prince of Fenyang was greatly lacking in terms of imperial legitimacy; after establishing peace with Meng Wu and three years of governance, the current Emperor also had a significant justification for his position.

Though Hu Ying was a great Earl Dazong, the authority on all matters of rites and rituals, he would absolutely not allow those with wild ambitions to use the name of propriety to disturb the current peaceful and prosperous era.

"Let’s go!" Shaofu Yu Jie didn’t even glance at the dragged-away Junior Secretary, "Don’t forget that our purpose here is to petition the Princess to restructure the four major Zhihuishi Divisions in MoBei and Liaodong into formal provinces. It’s getting dark; we can’t delay any longer."

The spirits of those present lifted, and they followed Yu Jie towards the Wenhua Palace.

They had gathered here today precisely to petition the Princess for the restructuring of these five regions into official provinces.

This issue had been pushed forward by many ministers since the end of June.

This was because the resettlement in Liaodong was already showing early signs of success.

Starting from August of the fourteenth year of Jingtai, Liaodong began to absorb large numbers of migrants from places such as Shaanxi and Shandong, amounting to seven million people, making up 2.7 million households.

In Liaodong, places like Shenyang and Changchun saw the opening of a vast swath of farmland and the construction of up to 7,000 towns and villages.

Their prosperity had already surpassed that of regions like Yunnan and Qiongzhou.

The key was that, although the lands were newly cultivated, the grain production of these two regions not only supplied the local needs but would also provide up to 13 million shi of various grains to the Capital City this year.

This was like manna from heaven for the Capital City, which relied heavily on grain transportation by water and faced annual food shortages.

Then there were the four Zhihuishi Divisions in MoBei, where just over a year had passed since the pacification of Meng Wu.

The court had started settling the people and promoting the technique of silage, which was already bearing fruit.

At this time, the vast majority of the nomads of Meng Wu had been gathered by the court in various fertile grasslands.

Their population even gave the court a small surprise.

Under the rule of Tuotuobuhua and Yexian, Meng Wu had only nine million people.

But after Jin Dynasty’s conquest and beheading tens of thousands at Podi Mountain, Meng Wu’s population surged to 11.2 million.

Many nomads who had scattered into the wilderness came forward, willing to submit to the court’s rule and receive brick houses from the Jin Dynasty authorities.

And in MoBei, despite the early freezing of the land due to cold waves.

The prepared silage had its effect, enough to support several months until the spring thaw.

They even successfully cultivated corn and potatoes in places such as Chifeng.

This meant that the people no longer needed to chase after grassland and could stay in their brick houses to keep warm during the cold winter.

According to several Buzhengshi’s estimates, the population of the four major Zhihuishi Divisions in MoBei could increase to 13 million next year.

This was partly due to the birth of many infants, and partly because more nomads who heard the news would gradually be gathered under the court’s jurisdiction.

This strategy of registering households and establishing provinces, which was once ridiculed by the officials, had begun to see the first light of success.

Even at this stage, however, the officials would not be in a hurry to reorganize the four major Zhihuishi Divisions of MoBei into provinces.

The issue this year was that Central Plains merchants were purchasing large quantities of leather, cattle, sheep, and wool from the grasslands.

In particular, due to the rise of woolen mills in Tianjin and Nanjing, there was an insatiable demand for wool. This year alone, the price of wool had tripled, causing a surge of merchants to travel far to MoBei to reserve wool for the coming year.

There were also various copper, gold, silver, and coal mines that were being exploited locally.

Li Xuan’s Zhihuishi Division had thus reaped a great amount of tax revenue, making all departments in The Court green with envy.

The problem was that including Liaodong, all five major Zhihuishi Divisions were under the system of the army of Weisuo, subordinate to Li Xuan’s Zhihuishi Division.

Their personnel, finance, and other powers were all in Li Xuan’s hands, and other departments of The Court couldn’t reach in.

In the view of the officials of The Court, this was undoubtedly inappropriate.

Whether it was to weaken the influence of the Dynasty’s military officials, to curb the power of Prince Fenyang, or to consider expanding departmental authority, the reformation of these five Zhihuishi Divisions into provinces was imperative.

Prince Fenyang, of course, was unwilling and had been vehemently resisting for the past two months, resorting to various methods to stall the process.

The officials didn’t have any objections, after all, it was them who had unanimously rejected Prince Fenyang’s proposal to establish provinces in these five regions a year ago. But now, seeing the benefits, they wanted a piece of the pie. How could Prince Fenyang not be annoyed?

But however much they understood, establishing the provinces was something that had to be done.

This time, even Minister of Revenue Quan Dingtian, who usually sided with Li Xuan, had taken the stand with his fellow ministers.

Because for the Ministry of Revenue, Liaodong was related to the food supply of north Zhili, and MoBei was a potential treasury in the future.

These places were a must for the Ministry of Revenue.

They were soon summoned by Yu Hongchang to the Wenhua Palace, and after the ministers presented their case, Yu Hongchang showed a helpless expression, "Regarding the establishment of provinces in these five regions, I have attempted to gauge Prince Fenyang’s stance.

Prince Fenyang doesn’t have the intention of outright refusal, but the current issues are threefold: firstly, the current situation in the five major Zhihuishi Divisions was fought for with the blood and sweat of the Weisuo soldiers, it can’t just be handed over like that; secondly, if the Zhihuishi are to be subordinate to the provincial officials after the establishment, the soldiers would no doubt feel aggrieved; thirdly, the Zhihuishi Division has spent countless resources on managing these regions, The Court must provide an explanation."

Shaofu Yu Jie immediately exchanged glances with the high-ranking officials present, seeing the realization in their eyes.

They all knew that Prince Fenyang meant for them to make an offer; as long as the price was right, the discussion of establishing the provinces in the five regions could proceed.

※※※※

While the ministers were meeting with Yu Hongchang, Li Xuan was shouldering Yu Youlong around his Heavenly Court of Xuanhuang, showing him the Kunpeng Warship, "The Xuanhuang Emperor".

Because there was no suitable dockyard in the mortal realm to construct this warship, nor was there the capability to modify the remains of Kunpeng Emperor.

So Leng Yurou directly chose Li Xuan’s Heavenly Court of Xuanhuang as the construction site for "The Xuanhuang Emperor".

This was due to the fact that, at the beginning of the year, Li Xuan had collected several fragments of the Heavenly Court provided by the Fusou Emperor, expanding his Heavenly Court of Xuanhuang to a size of a hundred li from north to south and eighty li from east to west, which now afforded enough space to accommodate the bones of Kunpeng.

Leng Yurou first used the power of the four ’Solar Furnaces’, coupled with the secret techniques of Taoism, to refine and condense the remains of the Kunpeng Emperor as a whole, burning away impurities, and shrinking it to a length of six hundred zhang. Only after that did she use it as a keel to install various components.

Some components were forged in the mortal realm and sent to the Heavenly Court of Xuanhuang for installation, while others were directly constructed within the Heavenly Court itself. The Shenqi Union even designed a two hundred thousand ton hydraulic forging press specifically for some large alloy castings.

However, such a large machine lacked sufficient energy to power it in the mortal realm and therefore had to be placed in the Heavenly Court of Xuanhuang.

Fortunately, Li Xuan had recruited many spellcasters and craftsmen over the past two years, which meant they never faced an issue of a labor shortage during construction.

"This ’The Xuanhuang Emperor’ is three hundred and twenty zhang long and forty-seven zhang at its widest point. The outer shell of the warship is two and a half zhang thick, covered entirely in Wujin armor. The defensive array inside is a complete ’Bamen Jinshui Array’, the same one used in Nanjing City, with equivalent power.

"It can activate Kunpeng’s ’Water Method’ and ’Devour’ Divine Skills, absorbing all external forces. Once those forces reach a certain level, they can be ejected via the ’Kunpeng Giant Cannon’ at the front of the ship," Leng Yurou explained to Li Xuan with immense excitement. "As for the weapons, there are forty-eight dual-mounted electromagnetic guns, adopting your suggestion. With midline-shouldered gun turrets on both the upper and lower sides of the vessel that can be raised and lowered to the appropriate height for firing,

"So no matter the direction, the warship can concentrate firepower from all forty-eight dual-mounted electromagnetic guns simultaneously, leaving no blind spots. Each side of the hull also has six hundred gun ports with a broad firing arc, totaling one thousand two hundred retraction cannons. It’s a monstrous vessel, a highly armed and near-impregnable mobile fortress.

"The key is its speed. The three ’Solar Furnaces’ inside the hull can stimulate Kunpeng’s ’Shensu’ Rule, allowing it to spread its wings. At full speed, it can reach seventy percent of the glory days of the Kunpeng Emperor. I’ve also designed thirty-six attachment points under the wings to allow the Yunzhong Warships to hang from them while ’The Xuanhuang Emperor’ activates ’Shensu’."

——Actually, more cannons can be fitted on it; with a three hundred and twenty zhang length, arranging four or five thousand gun ports would be a breeze.

But Li Xuan was not willing to do so. The Shenqi Union had yet to develop retraction cannons, nor a heavy machine gun similar to the Maxim gun. Every additional retraction cannon forged meant a loss of tens of thousands of silver yuan.

As Li Xuan walked around the warship, he thought to himself that it truly was a gold-consuming beast.

And it was certainly worthy of the twelve million silver yuan he spent on it. In terms of theoretical combat strength alone, this warship was unmatched in the world.

From now on, this would be his new flagship, and it was unlikely that any warship would surpass its strength in the future.