I wield power with my innate talents, and forge the Heavenly Court.

Although, due to the occupation of the Kazakh Khanate, some troops needed to be stationed there.

However, with only its remaining forces, the Yarkand Khanate did not hold out for long and soon succumbed to the fierce attacks of Wang Dahu's army.

Seeing that his army was in retreat and about to be captured by Wang Dahu, the Khan of the Yarkand Khanate immediately led the remaining troops to flee southwest.

However, as the core of a country, how could Wang Dahu let them go?

They had only managed to escape for a few hundred miles when Wang Dahu led his army to catch up with them, decisively defeating the royal army, killing the Khan of the Yarkand Khanate, and swallowing the dragon energy of the kingdom, thus completely destroying the Yarkand Khanate.

While Wang Dahu was attacking the Yarkand Khanate, Hong Chengchou, Zhou Nanying, and others had already led their troops into the Duosigan Commandery.

Basically, when Wang Dahu conquered the Yarkand Khanate, they had also captured the Dosgandusi.

The remaining Ü-Tsang Commandery, facing a pincer attack from two powerful armies that were constantly dividing their forces, naturally could not hold out for long.

In the eighth year of the Celestial Empire's reign, the Celestial Empire not only recovered all of the Ming Dynasty's territory, but even expanded it further.

For example, the Ming Dynasty never occupied Yarkand and the Kazakh Khanate.

In these areas, the dynasty re-established provinces and set up provincial administration offices, etc.

Meanwhile, Dorgon and others of the Qing court mainly led their troops into Central Siberia, while Li Zicheng entered Eastern Siberia.

The remnants of the Yarkand Khanate and the Kazakh Khanate in the west entered the Uighur Khanate.

The remaining forces from places like Ü-Tsangdusi moved west and south into Kashmir, Nibala, and other areas.

In the ninth year of the Tianchao reign, Wang Shi, Li Shu, and others led their armies westward, while Wang Dahu, Zhou Nanying, and others led their armies northward, jointly attacking the Mongol Tatars and other tribes, and completely encompassing the vast grasslands.

Only then did the Celestial Empire halt its rapid expansion.

The same problem persists: even after five years of development and occupying so many places at once, manpower is starting to become insufficient.

Moreover, these places also require some time for construction and development.

Therefore, the dynasty temporarily halted its expansion.

Meanwhile, during the three years of war, everyone gained a lot of merits and their positions and titles were promoted one after another.

After ten years in the Celestial Empire, these areas have become completely stable, and what remains is in-depth construction and development.

As for the Celestial Empire's army, in addition to the regular garrison troops scattered throughout various regions, the dynasty established eight armies and one guard, as well as the Heaven and Earth Armies.

The Eight Armies refer to the eight regional armies.

The Eastern Azure Dragon Legion is under the jurisdiction of the Left Army Commander-in-Chief's Office. Its commander is Li Shu, a second-class duke and Duke of Jinghai.
The Southern Vermilion Bird Legion, the former military governor's office, is commanded by Zhou Nanying, a first-class marquis.

The Western White Tiger Legion, Right Army Commander-in-Chief, is led by Wang Dahu, Second-Class Duke of Wu'an.
Northern Xuanwu Legion, Rear Military Governor's Office, Legion Commander Wang Shi;

In addition, there were Li Yu of the Southeast Army Corps under the Left Army Commander-in-Chief's Office, Hong Chengchou of the Southwest Army Corps under the Front Army Commander-in-Chief's Office, Chen Zhengyang of the Northwest Army Corps under the Right Army Commander-in-Chief's Office, and Zu Dashou of the Northeast Army Corps under the Rear Army Commander-in-Chief's Office, among others.
This is the Eight Legions established by the dynasty to protect the territory of the Celestial Empire from all directions.

In addition, the dynasty also established the Zhenwu Guard in the capital to protect the capital. It was under the jurisdiction of the Central Military Commission and had only 10,000 men. They were the elite of the elite selected from all the armies, and there were no soldiers with supernatural powers.

Furthermore, military drills are conducted periodically, with the capable promoted and the weak demoted.

In addition to these eight armies and one guard, which are the legions stationed in various places, there are also the Heavenly and Earthly Armies, which are the Heavenly Soldiers belonging to the Immortal Realm and the Yin Soldiers belonging to the Underworld. Both of them are under the command of the Central Military Commission.

Its main duties are to patrol various places, suppress rebellions by powerful figures, and capture powerful demons and monsters.

Although there are currently no large-scale rebellions by powerful figures in the Celestial Empire, the local security administration and patrol offices are sufficient to suppress all illegal activities, even demons and monsters.

Of course, those nearly immortal ghosts, even if suppressed by the patrol and inspection department, are sent to the local land gods and city gods to be suppressed and sent to the underworld.

However, regardless of whether it is needed now, the necessary preparations should always be made.

Given the unique nature of celestial and ghostly soldiers, they can arrive at various locations at the fastest speed in the event of a situation requiring military suppression, saving a lot of trouble in troop deployment.

In fact, the dynasty was already preparing to hand over all matters concerning demons, monsters, and powerful figures causing trouble within the Celestial Empire to the Heavenly Soldiers and the Underworld Soldiers.

At that time, the regular garrison troops within the territory of the Celestial Empire can be disbanded one by one or incorporated into other armies.

On the surface, there will be no army within the territory of the Celestial Empire, except for eight legions on the border and the Zhenwei Guard in the central government, which is not even considered a combat unit.

After all, with the Celestial Empire's current strength, who could possibly march all the way to the capital?
Besides the reorganization of the army, the internal development of the Celestial Empire was also extremely rapid, and it was not affected at all by foreign wars.

In fact, it has actually promoted many related developments.

For example, roads, transportation tools, etc., are even more advanced than those of later generations.

High-speed trains, small aircraft, and so on have already been developed.

Everything in China is moving closer to the future, even showing signs of a futuristic science fiction world.

In the city, many high-rise buildings have gradually appeared.

Farmland outside of cities is beginning to develop towards centralized contracting.

With various runes, instruments, and supernatural powers, they can often contract hundreds or thousands of acres with just two or three people.

Moreover, as their strength increases, they can contract even more land.

Overall, apart from some ancient city buildings that have been deliberately preserved, it is basically no different from later generations.

China's population also experienced explosive growth during this decade.

According to some historical research from the previous life, in the early years of Chongzhen's reign, if the hidden population is included, the Ming Dynasty had a population of about 165 million.
However, various natural disasters and wars broke out at the end of the Ming Dynasty. By the time the Ming Dynasty fell in 1644, the death toll had reached about 40 million, and the population was only about 120 million.

Subsequently, with the Qing Dynasty's entry into the Central Plains, it caused another large number of casualties.

By the time of the Shunzhi Emperor, only 70 million Chinese people remained, with nearly 100 million deaths in total.

This demonstrates the devastation of the wars at the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty.

However, in this life, thanks to the intervention of the dynasty's rescue army, the entire Ming Dynasty was swept away in just about ten years.

In this way, casualties were minimized.

In total, there were only a few million casualties.

By the time the Celestial Dynasty reached its first year, the population was still around 150 to 160 million.

In addition, with the general public no longer having to worry about making a living in recent years, and with the encouragement of the country and various preferential policies, the enthusiasm for having children has naturally been extremely high.

Over the course of ten years, each family would have three to five, five to six, or even more children.

In addition, the expansion of territory led to the continuous influx of people into the Celestial Empire.

Today, the population of China has reached a staggering 485 million.

It's important to know that at that time, the global population, excluding China, was only around 500 million.

In other words, at this time, China's population accounted for roughly half of the world's total, making it arguably the most populous country in the world.

With such a large population, once the newborns grow up, China will have enough strength to conquer the world.

Besides population and local development, the concept of "Heavenly Status" has become widespread. Apart from infants and young children, everyone, from scholars and literati to farmers and ordinary people, has their own Heavenly Status.

Some people have even combined existing supernatural powers to create various new supernatural powers and some special items, which have provided considerable assistance to the evolution of the rules of spiritual power.

Among them were scholars and farmers.

Some scholars, based on their literary talent, delved into the various supernatural rules and evolved into writing that could produce beautiful prose.

Using brush and ink as a guide, one can paint mountains and rivers, and the landscape will appear; writing poems and songs, one can also generate poetic imagery; attacking, defending, and suppressing evil spirits, all can be done with a single stroke.

A scholar who passed the imperial examinations elevated this concept, transforming it into the idea that words can be law, that a single word can change celestial phenomena, and that attack, defense, and the subjugation of demons can all be accomplished with a single sentence.

Of course, this is completely different from the rule that a dynasty's words become law.

A single word from the dynasty can alter the very rules of heaven and earth within the entire territory of the Celestial Empire.

The scholar's words become law, which means he resonates with the literary spirit and uses that spirit to guide the power of rules. At most, this can only cover a few hundred meters, which is equivalent to the realm of supernatural powers.

As for the titles of Xiucai and Juren, they were naturally not obtained through examinations as before.

Yes, because in China, without the imperial examination system, there were naturally no more titles such as Xiucai (秀才) or Juren (举人).

However, some scholars who still longed for their former glory applied the titles of Xiucai and Juren to the realms of literary cultivation.

This is equivalent to a student at the meditation level; a student at the condensation level, or a child student; a scholar at the qi cultivation level; and a successful candidate at the supernatural power level.

The dynasty did not interfere.

He simply evolved a divine status, becoming the top scholar.

However, this top scholar is no longer the one who ranked first in the imperial examination.

Rather, top talents from all schools, subjects, and even industries can all be called top scorers.

There can be top scholars in both civil and military fields, as well as other types of top scholars.

Astronomy, geography, physics, chemistry, supernatural powers and magic, etc.

Even a primary school student can become the top student in their school.

Suddenly, the title of "top scholar" became synonymous with someone who excels in a particular field.

While the name has a greater impact, it has also become more ordinary.

This naturally drew dissatisfaction from many scholars and intellectuals.

In particular, some farmers and ordinary people have the potential to become top performers in a certain aspect of farming, which makes them even more resentful.

You're just a country bumpkin, what makes you think you can be called a top scholar?
However, no matter how dissatisfied they were, they couldn't fight against the powerful, and could only keep all their thoughts to themselves.

The dynasty simply laughed it off.

To be honest, while the status of the top scholar in the dynasty's evolution was related to them, it wasn't really targeted at them.

Everything the dynasty did was for the development of the Celestial Empire and the spiritual progress of the people under its rule.

The title of "top scholar" (状元) is derived from this.

It was only after hearing about what they had done that Wang Chao suddenly thought of the top scholar.

And since it is for the sake of governing the people, it is a form of spiritual practice.

Therefore, the title of "top scholar" is naturally not just a simple honorary title.

The top scholar rank allows the winner to double their cultivation speed before the next top scholar is born the following year.

This cycle repeats year after year, naturally selecting the best talents to help them improve their strength more quickly, reach the realm of supernatural powers, comprehend the rules, and in turn drive the dynasty's progress.

And having such a prestigious and lucrative position as the top scholar has indeed greatly fostered a competitive atmosphere across all sectors.

In a short time, everyone's cultivation progressed by leaps and bounds, and all sorts of supernatural powers and techniques emerged and evolved.

In addition, rune machines, rune items, and so on based on rune arrays are also emerging in large numbers.

In Xincheng, Henan, golden waves of wheat ripple across a vast expanse of farmland.

An elderly man, dressed in coarse linen clothes but with a ruddy complexion, looked ahead with hope as the heatwave hit him.

Where he was looking, a scarecrow made of straw stood quietly in the middle of the rice field.

With the aid of supernatural powers and rune machines, it is indeed possible to cultivate hundreds or thousands of acres of land with just two or three people.

However, there are also many inconveniences involved.

The caterpillar fungus infestation is manageable; with supernatural powers, it can be easily eliminated.

However, the pecking of birds and the destruction by wild animals are somewhat difficult to drive away.

After all, they are not like cordyceps, which, once the weeds in the ground are removed and the pests in them are killed, will basically not reappear in a short period of time.

Birds and beasts don't nest in the fields; they come and go in a flash, making them very difficult to drive away.

They can't just stay in the fields forever, can they?

Moreover, as the energy of heaven and earth gradually becomes richer, the birds and beasts of today have also evolved repeatedly.

Not only has its appetite and destructive power increased dramatically, but it has also developed a certain level of intelligence, making ordinary methods of driving it away largely ineffective.

Just like the scarecrows of the past, they only became a place for birds to perch, not a tool to drive them away.

Therefore, those who contract land may not need to worry too much about planting and harvesting.

However, the destruction caused by birds and beasts has become a major problem.

Over the years, they have been engaging in lively battles with birds and beasts.

Supernatural powers, magic arrays, and all sorts of other methods were employed.

However, these methods have limited coverage and short duration, so their effectiveness is not good.

Even when using magic arrays, because they are too mechanical and rigid, some birds and beasts can forcibly break through the array's cover using their own strength, or even their accidental innate supernatural abilities.

The power generated when the magic circle collapses will cause even greater damage.

The supernatural powers are flexible and highly targeted; even birds and beasts that have mastered innate supernatural powers are no match for the person wielding them.

But that requires someone to do it.

However, the birds and beasts that damage the farmland will scatter as soon as they spot people.

After the farm owner leaves, they quickly gather around again.

This guerrilla-like tactic has caused endless annoyance to the various farm owners, leaving them somewhat helpless. (End of Chapter)