Longzang

Chapter 1181 Deep Planning
The imperial edicts for building the Imperial Guard camp and the four academies were issued at the same time. In the blink of an eye, a month had passed. The foundations of the four academies had been leveled, but there was still no movement on the Imperial Guard camp.

The four Grand Secretaries were originally each in charge of an academy, but Wang He ultimately decided to assign the Donglin Academy to Li Weisheng.

The reasons for this decision were very valid. Li Weisheng came from the west, entered the court, and used his overwhelming power to suppress the imperial relatives and nobles of the Eastern Jin Dynasty. He initiated reforms and wanted to bring the upright officials into power.

Such a person, let alone having a behemoth standing behind him, even if he came alone, how could he not want a share of the pie?
Once the civil officials had their positions assigned, they immediately got to work with great enthusiasm. They clearly saw that an academy, in a few decades, would become one of the most influential factions in the court and among the people.

Li Weisheng readily accepted Wang He's goodwill. However, the Donglin Academy was located in the eastern part of Jin, directly opposite the Western Jin Dynasty. Clearly, the civil officials were also afraid that Li Weisheng would become too powerful.

However, Li Weisheng did not take this little scheme to heart. He spent half a month selecting the location of Donglin Academy, and then returned to the capital to report to Prince Jinxuan.

The back-and-forth trip took up a lot of time. The other three academies had already started leveling the ground, while Li Weisheng had only just secured the necessary land.

The capital of the Eastern Jin Dynasty was located in the north, and although it was early spring, the weather was still cold.

Prince Jinxuan received Li Weijin in the warm pavilion of his study.

The room was warm and cozy, with charcoal burning and a fire burning on the floor. Yet, King Jinxuan remained wrapped in a thick fur robe, his hands clasped behind his back, looking at the map on the table.

Upon seeing Li Weisheng enter, Prince Jinxuan asked, "Was everything alright?"

"Things are going very smoothly. For example, all four major academies except for my Donglin Academy have started construction and have begun recruiting students in their respective regions."

Things are going terribly wrong. The locations for the six Imperial Guard training camps are still unselected, and various unexpected problems have arisen at the planned sites. In some cases, the land actually belongs to a member of the imperial family; in others, a large number of unruly commoners have suddenly appeared, resisting construction. There was even one site where bandits massacred the entire imperial delegation, releasing only the imperial envoy.

King Jinxuan rubbed his slightly blurry eyes and said slowly, "This is normal. Although your blow was not fatal, it still caused my relatives to lose their hands and feet. They have troops at their disposal, so the fact that they did not immediately rebel is already out of respect for me."

"So, does Your Majesty still intend to proceed?"

King Jinxuan said calmly, "You've been given an official position and power. I've even issued seven imperial edicts to you! Basically, all the power I can exercise has been given to you. Tell me, do you think I intend to proceed with this matter?"

Li Weisheng said, "If you want to get it done, I need one more thing."

King Jinxuan frowned slightly and said, "I don't like people who beat around the bush. Speak plainly!"

Li Weisheng said, "In truth, I underestimated the difficulty of this matter. I did not expect the other side to be so audacious as to intercept and kill the imperial delegation."

King Jinxuan chuckled and said, "You'll find out later that they're capable of doing many things; this is nothing at all."

Li Weisheng smiled slightly and said, "Your Majesty need not worry, I dare to do much more! Now I need Your Majesty to bestow upon me the title of General of Chariots and Cavalry, and then give me two battalions of Imperial Guards. No more, a few thousand men will be enough."

What do you need troops for?

Li Weisheng said meaningfully, "When I was governing the region, I was very good at suppressing bandits."

King Jinxuan was somewhat surprised and gave Li Weisheng a deep look. Everything has two sides; those who are good at suppressing bandits are bound to be even better at being bandits themselves.

"Are these enough people?" King Jinxuan asked with great concern.

"I will recruit soldiers myself; these two battalions will suffice."

Where will the money come from?

"We'll have money if we suppress the bandits."

King Jinxuan did not ask where the bandits came from. Clearly, wherever Li Weisheng went, bandits were suppressed.

……

In the Azure Immortal City, Wei Yuan sat in his room, looking at documents from the Eastern Jin Dynasty.

When the state of Jin was divided into three states, the Eastern Jin was considered the legitimate dynasty. Its founding emperor was suspicious by nature and only trusted his own bloodline.

Before his death, he slaughtered all the founding heroes and then enfeoffed his sixteen sons in different places. He also established a rule that sons of the eldest direct line of the royal family should at least be granted the title of county marquis, while sons of other branches would be granted the title of pavilion marquis. Over the centuries, the sheer number of royal princes and marquises in the Eastern Jin Dynasty became a unique phenomenon among the nine kingdoms. Besides their original fiefdoms, many members of the royal family continuously purchased land, gradually becoming the largest landowners in their regions. Coupled with the Eastern Jin's unique system of providing troops based on land holdings, many members of the royal family more or less established their own private armies.

Of the entire annual revenue of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, 40% was used to support the imperial clan, leaving insufficient funds for anything else. Considering the taxes levied by the imperial clan on their fiefdoms, more than half was actually consumed. In other words, more than half of the Eastern Jin's income was used to support the numerous large families of the Prince of Jin.

Therefore, Wei Yuan arranged for Li Weisheng to carry out reforms in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, primarily to crack down on the imperial clan, secondly to separate the military from the civilians, to control the military with civil officials, and finally to promote the rule of the Qingliu faction.

Wei Yuan had considered the entire strategy thoroughly, and the steps were clearly defined.

Separating soldiers from their commanders, who are unfamiliar with their generals, and vice versa, inevitably leads to a decline in the army's combat effectiveness. Especially in this era, the core of an army's combat power lies in the hundreds or even thousands of personal guards surrounding the commander. This is the force that is willing to die for the commander; defeating stubborn enemies and guarding key passes all depend on them.

Under the old system of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, although the army was a disorganized mess, each battalion could be considered the general's personal guard, and each was actually quite powerful on its own. However, when the scale of the war became large, command became difficult.

The policy of emphasizing civil affairs and suppressing military affairs would further weaken the entire military group and reduce the combat effectiveness of the Eastern Jin army.

However, striking at the imperial clan would replenish the national treasury and bring local power back to the central government, a measure that could genuinely strengthen the Eastern Jin Dynasty. Before setting out, Li Weisheng specifically consulted Wei Yuan about this matter, not understanding why it was necessary to do so. Li Weisheng believed that there was absolutely no need to touch the imperial clan; instead, they should vigorously promote enfeoffment, dividing the Eastern Jin into hundreds or even thousands of independent small kingdoms.

Wei Yuan's answer was that while the overall goal was indeed to weaken the Eastern Jin Dynasty, it was also important that the common people could live better lives in the process. Civil officials, at least, were appointed and had to adhere to the law and maintain some semblance of dignity. The imperial family, however, acted recklessly, and killing people in the streets was commonplace. It was self-evident which government would benefit the people more.

As for the strengths and weaknesses of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, they are completely unimportant in the face of the current Qingming army.

Just as Xiao Yu recklessly invaded the borders of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, attacking cities and plundering people, he had fought against dozens of generals of the Eastern Jin, both high and low rank. Among them were incompetent and foolish generals, as well as renowned generals. But regardless of the generals, they basically all perished.

Faced with indiscriminate firepower, no strategy is effective. An ambush? That would require deceiving Xiaoyu and Shaoyang Xingjun first. The only way to defeat Qingming is a one-on-one duel between the commanders.

But Xiaoyu discovered that as long as she left Qingming, she could walk sideways within the Dharma Image. Whether there was one Dharma Image or ten Dharma Images opposite her made no difference; she could walk sideways regardless.

Therefore, Wei Yuan's refusal to act against the Eastern Jin was not out of fear of the large army, but rather out of concern for Xu Youyi.

In Wei Yuan's overall strategy, the academy was of paramount importance. It was the core of the eventual righteous government and the key to achieving a clean and honest government.

With the establishment of academies, scholars naturally formed factions. In the Confucian system, the teacher-student relationship was a bond even stronger than that between father and son.

Established by the imperial court and overseen by senior officials, these academies naturally made anyone who could gain entry into them a student of the Grand Secretary. Entering the court as an official was effortless; one had no need to scheme or plot, as one was already in a position of power. Therefore, scholars from all over the land flocked to them.

With the establishment of large-scale academies, the imperial examination system would naturally be controlled by them in seven or eight out of ten cases. On this point, scholars never had any bottom line.

With academies, factions could be formed. Suppressing nobles and military generals and purging the imperial clan also cleared away external enemies for the civil officials and the upright officials.

Having successfully formed a faction and eliminated external enemies, Wei Yuan's plan had only one final step left: to enrich the civil officials.

This step is quite simple. Wei Yuan has Li Weisheng distribute the lucrative positions that were taken back from the imperial relatives and nobles. The civil officials will then find their own money, and in a few years, they will naturally accumulate huge fortunes.

Once they can form factions, have no major enemies, and become incredibly wealthy, the civil service group will spontaneously limit the king's power, find ways to oppose King Jinxuan, and hinder him in everything, without needing Wei Yuan to direct them remotely.

However, Li Weisheng still had concerns. He felt that if things really came to that, the Eastern Jin court would become highly centralized and, compared to the past, considerably more efficient when necessary. What if the Qingming army re-entered Eastern Jin and they resisted to the death?
Upon hearing this question, Wei Yuan laughed and said, "If a court official only owns a hundred or so acres of land, he might be willing to fight to the death with the city. But if he owns thousands or tens of thousands of acres of land, would he still choose to die rather than surrender?"
Li Weisheng was speechless. Only then did he understand the profound meaning behind Wei Yuan's desire for the Eastern Jin civil officials to become wealthy.

When foreign enemies come wielding their swords, the necks of great scholars may not be as strong as those of ordinary peddlers. Especially those with vast wealth, it's almost certain that those who know how to adapt to circumstances will be the wise ones.

This entire strategy will naturally take time to implement. Wei Yuan gave Li Weisheng ten years to see initial results. If Li Weisheng does a good job, he alone will be worth a million soldiers.

Before parting, Li Weisheng asked the last question that had been on his mind: "Lord of the Realm, why go to such great lengths? If you want the Eastern Jin Dynasty, all you need to do is deal with the immortals above, then send your army straight in and crush all the disobedient ones, wouldn't that be enough?"

Upon hearing this, Wei Yuan laughed heartily and said, "If we can save some trouble, we should. The more people who surrender, the fewer casualties we will suffer, and the less ordinary people will endure the hardships of war. These people are the future talents for everyone to achieve enlightenment."

In closing, Wei Yuan patted Li Weisheng on the shoulder and laughed, "When my army marches to the capital, who knows, the one who will open the gates for me will be the Minister of War of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, haha!"

Li Weisheng chuckled awkwardly, finding the joke rather unfunny.

(End of this chapter)