Longzang

Chapter 1179: The Court is Full of Politics
Wei Yuan had his own profound considerations in launching the Outstanding Cultivator Program. Most of the Imperial Cultivators were stationed in their respective regions and bound to powerful families, making them difficult to move easily. Therefore, most of them would choose to observe in the early stages.

However, Dharma Forms are much easier to move around. Many Dharma Forms not only wander around, but some even become outlaws. In addition, some Dharma Forms who are stuck in large families with no way to advance are also easily bewitched by Qingming.

For high-level cultivators, immortal silver is far less convincing than spiritual pills, so Wei Yuan presented the Haohua Pill, which all Dharma Aspect cultivators could understand. This pill was first created by the Three Immortals, and its effects are overwhelming. More than three thousand years later, other sects are still catching up with the Taichu Palace in the field of Dharma Aspect cultivation pills.

Back then, Wei Yuan set a rule for all mortals by allowing them to eat meat. Today, Wei Yuan is going to use elixirs to set an example for all Dharma Aspects, letting them know just how much they are worth.

Perhaps only one out of a hundred Dharma Aspects in the world will turn to Qingming, but the remaining ninety-nine will mostly ask their families for more. If they are not given more or cannot afford it, their hearts will be scattered.

The Great Treasure Flower Pure Land has always had the most cultivators, and one advantage of meditation is that it purifies the mind and reduces desires, so daily cultivation is not demanding. Now Wei Yuan intends to rekindle their desires; it remains to be seen whether the Pure Land will comply.

As for the enormous expenses incurred by Qingming, Wei Yuan could afford them entirely. After acquiring the remains of two new immortals, Qingming gained hundreds of thousands of acres of spiritual fields, all of which could be used to grow spiritual rice and immortal herbs. This was more than enough to support the needs of the hundreds of new Dharma Aspects, with a large surplus to spare.

In this round, Wei Yuan played his cards openly. He had thought it through carefully, and even if he were on the other side, he wouldn't have any real way to deal with it. There were only two viable paths: one was through faith, but isn't the greatest faith simply about making mortals live better lives and enabling cultivators to advance further on their path? Therefore, the faith in this case could only be a cult or ignorant brainwashing.

The second option is to blockade, meaning to completely prevent one's own people from knowing about it. If they don't know, naturally there will be no unrest.

However, at the level of Dharma Aspect, one is considered an upper-middle-class figure in any power or even the Nine Kingdoms. Aristocratic families can appoint one as an elder, and in the Nine Kingdoms, one can serve as a fourth or fifth-rank official. No one in power can completely suppress individuals at this level.

Then, Wei Yuan wrote a grand gesture and approved 100,000 taels of immortal silver to the Qingming Development Bureau. Now that the Qingming Development Bureau is becoming more and more efficient, this money can make everyone in the Great Tang Dynasty, inside and outside the Immortal Sect, and in every county and township know in the shortest possible time that such an event has occurred: Qingming is recruiting talents from all over the world at ten times the price.

Wei Yuan had left plenty of leeway in the plan; even if only a third of the people were recruited, it would be more than enough to handle the needs of replacing the great formation. Xuan Yue Zhenjun wouldn't have to continue shouldering the burden without complaint.

After dealing with this major matter, he should be able to continuously cause trouble for Da Baohua for a considerable period of time. Afterwards, Wei Yuan casually flipped through the political affairs of the Western Jin Dynasty.

The Prince of Jin once established several secret guards, with many different names, but their contents were all similar, mostly dealing with the affairs of the Eastern and Western Depots.

Since Wei Yuan was enfeoffed as the King of Wei, the secret guards from various departments have been quite tactful in sending him copies of all the reports. When Wei Yuan swept through the Jin territory and defeated the Lü family, all the secret guards tacitly presented the reports to Wei Yuan first, and then a few days later, they would send a copy to the King of Jin.

Wei Yuan found this kind of opportunistic behavior quite useful.

The secret reports submitted by the Imperial Guards were all pretty much the same, detailing which officials had gotten together for drinks that day, or which official's hobbies had suddenly changed yesterday, and so on.

After reading many secret reports, Wei Yuan noticed something: the number of officials in the Western Jin Dynasty who were fond of flowers, birds, fish and insects had increased significantly recently, to the point that the price of birds had increased several times over, and the price of insects had increased by a factor of zero.

Then Wei Yuan discovered that an old acquaintance, Li Weisheng, had also joined the ranks of bird-raising and insect-fighting enthusiasts. Wei Yuan remembered that Li Weisheng had considerable talent in cultivation and was even more adept at being an official. Upon further examination of the secret report, he found that, sure enough, Li Weisheng had now risen to the high position of the second rank, on par with the ministers of the six ministries.

He should be enjoying his success, so why is he going home to raise birds?
With a question lingering in his mind, Wei Yuan used his divine sense to access all relevant information and understood the whole story in the time it takes to drink a cup of tea.

It turns out that the territory now under the jurisdiction of the Western Jin Dynasty is actually only the six prefectures around the capital. Most of the remaining territory is held by Wei Yuan, a small part is the northern frontier war zone, and the Xu family in Ningxi.

The Xu family, on the other hand, took the initiative to shrink back, giving up all the territory they had expanded into the Qingming Realm, totaling four counties.

The Xu family did more than that. With Xu Lanshan in charge, they left only a small force in the south, enough to maintain order but not enough for defense. Then they withdrew all the main force of their private armies, and even a lot of the servants and guards from wealthy families, thus mobilizing hundreds of thousands of able-bodied soldiers, who were all conscripted to fight against the Liao people in the north.

The Xu family's stance was very clear: they didn't want the southern lands anymore; they would simply reclaim them from the foreign tribes. This put Wei Yuan in a difficult position, forcing him to allocate a batch of military equipment and provisions to support the Xu family's campaign against the foreign tribes. This gesture was necessary.

So the Western Jin officials, who were originally in charge of managing two provinces and dozens of counties, suddenly found that they had less than a tenth of the work they used to have, and naturally they were all bored out of their minds.

However, while the civil officials dared to oppose the Prince of Jin, no one dared to oppose the Prince of Wei. After all, the precedent was clear: this prince not only actually killed people, but he also used methods like throwing himself into a cesspool. And even in death, he wouldn't find peace, but would be written into stories and passed down for who knows how many years.

Therefore, including Li Weisheng, all the officials of the Western Jin Dynasty had nothing to do. However, the Western Jin treasury was more abundant than ever before, and Wei Yuan's quarterly tax revenue was so large that the King of Jin sometimes doubted his own eyes. With the treasury full, the salaries of officials naturally increased, and their nominal income rose considerably. Although the total revenue still dropped significantly, it somewhat comforted the officials.

Wei Yuan had a fairly good impression of Li Weisheng, and he also remembered a guy named Chen Dao who had once made things quite embarrassing for Wei Yuan.

The admiral who was paired with Chen Dao seemed to be named Yue Jinshan. He was quite skilled in military campaigns. If Wei Yuan hadn't invented the musket and taken control of the Xu family's young man, it would have been impossible for him to defeat Wei Yuan's Northern Frontier Cavalry so easily.

Wei Yuan became interested and continued searching for information. He discovered that Chen was now a low-ranking official with no real power, having spent most of his life retired at home in his prime. Yue Jinshan was still leading troops in the northern frontier, but his rank had been reduced to a miscellaneous general, only slightly better than a deputy general. It was clear that he had implicated both of them.

However, the northern frontier was constantly engaged in life-or-death battles with the Liao people, so Yue Jinshan was nominally just a general with a miscellaneous title, but he could command as many as 150,000 troops. Many of his nominal superiors actually obeyed him and became his de facto subordinates.

Wei Yuan knew back then that Yue Jinshan was truly talented, and he still does now.

Wei Yuan pondered for a moment and felt that it was a waste of talent to leave these officials idle.

……

In the capital of the Western Jin Dynasty, heavy snow was falling.

It was only a little past mid-afternoon when Li Weisheng left the yamen and returned home. The two newly acquired macaws in his home were auspicious birds, each a full four feet tall, truly magnificent and powerful.

These two were eating meat, and Li Weisheng was worried that his servants, being clumsy, might get eaten by the parrots. The government offices were practically deserted, and he was getting home rather late today. Usually, after lunch and a short nap, he could go home and play with the birds.

Upon entering the mansion, Li Weisheng headed straight for the Bird Garden. As soon as he entered, he saw two large parrots strolling around the courtyard. Just as Li Weisheng was feeling a surge of joy, he suddenly noticed a figure beside the parrots.

He had seen this figure a few times in his younger days, but seeing him again now made his legs go weak and he broke out in a cold sweat. In the blink of an eye, his cotton robe was soaked through.

Li Weisheng, having spent many years navigating the officialdom, realized what was happening and, without caring whether the figure was the one he was thinking of, immediately rushed forward, knelt down, and said, "This humble official pays his respects to the Prince of Wei! May the Prince of Wei live forever, as long as the heavens!"

The figure turned around, and it was Wei Yuan.

Wei Yuan smiled slightly and said, "It's been a long time. Lord Li is still as sharp as ever. It seems you're looking to make a difference!"

Li Weisheng immediately broke out in a cold sweat and hurriedly said, "How dare I! This humble official has always been loyal to the Prince of Wei and the Holy King, and has never had any disloyal intentions!"

Wei Yuan remained noncommittal, saying, "Has Lord Li ever considered serving in another country? Western Jin is too small; it would be a waste of his talents."

Li Weisheng's face was pale, and beads of sweat appeared on his forehead. He said, "I don't know what mistake I have made to be exiled. In the past, I thought I was still of some use to you, and I have always been law-abiding and have not overstepped my bounds in the slightest."

Wei Yuan paused for a moment, and seeing that he was sufficiently frightened, he said, "How could someone as talented as Lord Li be exiled? Oh, it is somewhat similar to exile. I plan to write a letter recommending you for a position in the Eastern Jin Dynasty. What do you think?"

Li Weisheng immediately replied, "How dare I disobey the King of Wei's order? I just don't know what business I have going to Eastern Jin for."

"There's quite a lot to do. I'll explain it to you in detail." Wei Yuan then went into the study with Li Weisheng and talked in detail until the lanterns were lit at dusk before Wei Yuan left.

Li Weisheng began packing his belongings that very night, and the next morning at court, he resigned from his post to the Prince of Jin, immediately causing a stir among the officials. The Prince of Jin, however, did not ask any questions and directly approved Li Weisheng's request to retire to his hometown, also giving him a large sum of money for his old age.

This matter is strange in every way, but since the appearance of the King of Wei in the Western Jin Dynasty, how many strange things have happened? Didn't he abduct the granddaughter of the Left Chancellor and flee to the State of Ji a few years ago?

When many officials thought of this, they remembered hearing that the Left Chancellor's granddaughter was doing very well in the State of Ji. However, the Left Chancellor had long been dismissed from his post and demoted to the ninth rank, and had gone back to his hometown to retire.

Upon receiving the imperial decree, Li Weisheng set off for the Eastern Jin Dynasty the very next day, arriving in the capital after half a month. King Xuan of Eastern Jin was overjoyed to hear of Li Weisheng's arrival and personally went to the post station to greet him. Li Weisheng was deeply moved and knelt for a long time, unable to rise.

The emperor and his minister put on a show of a long-awaited rain after a drought. Prince Xuan bestowed upon them a large mansion before returning to the palace, waiting for Li Weisheng to present his strategies for governing the country at court the next day!

The next morning, all the officials gathered, and Li Weisheng entered the hall before them, exuding an air of grandeur. Upon seeing him, all the officials were impressed, secretly thinking that although this fellow was unknown, his appearance was indeed quite remarkable, possessing the face of a capable minister for all ages.

After the grand ceremony, Li Weisheng cleared his throat and then revealed the core of his governing strategy:
A righteous court is full of officials!

(End of this chapter)