Longzang

Chapter 1196 Walking the Path of Azure Sky

"...The Azure Yuan is popular throughout the world. In the Azure Netherworld, there are not only the True Lord of the Cultivating Rice Seedlings who has rebuilt his merits and become a saint, but also many people who are ranked among the Twelve Immortals. Furthermore, the core disciples of the Bao, Xiao, Cui, and Xu families occupy high positions. All of these people have a path to immortality. But I have never heard of any other kind of private currency in the Azure Netherworld, never!" The old minister, unfazed by the King of Qi's expression and the glances repeatedly thrown at him by his colleagues, continued to speak eloquently.

An imperial censor stepped forward and said, "What does issuing private currency have to do with the Qingyuan coin? You are just making excuses!"

The old minister sneered and said, "Those who understand will understand, and those who don't, I can't explain it to you! If you want to flatter Prime Minister Lu, you need to have some knowledge, otherwise, what use are you, a piece of trash, if you can't even flatter him properly?"

The censor was so ashamed that he wanted to disappear, his face turned red, and he retreated.

At this moment, Lu Xiang stepped forward and said, "What Lord Wang said makes a lot of sense, but private currency is already rampant. If we ban it all directly, it will hurt the people too much and is not realistic. Therefore, I think we should take a two-pronged approach: issue official currency on one side and collect private currency on the other, and proceed gradually. This way, we can achieve both goals."

King Qi's expression softened, and he nodded, saying, "This is a wise and experienced approach to governing a country."

The old minister wanted to say something more, but hesitated, knowing that this was the King of Qi's last line, and could only say: "This old minister only has some experience with Qingyuan, and is an outsider in other fields. I am sure that Prime Minister Lu has other insights, and I am all ears."

Lu Xiang said in a deep voice, "The power of Qingming lies in Qingyuan, yet it also lies not in Qingyuan. First, the Qingming army swept through Jin and Zhao, then grain, iron armor, silk, brocade, and elixirs swept through various countries, destroying the industries of neighboring nations, and only then did Qingyuan emerge. Qingyuan is the sharp weapon, while industry and the iron cavalry are the hands wielding the sword. With a sharp weapon in hand, the killing power naturally increases tenfold. But with a weapon but no hands, that sharp weapon is like a tree without roots, nothing more than a dead thing."

Therefore, I believe that Qi Yuan should develop, but more importantly, it should establish corresponding industries in our Great Qi. If Qingming can do it, why can't we? Moreover, we should do it better than Qingming and produce even more!
Many years ago, I sent out a large number of spies to infiltrate Qingming. Many of them have already made some achievements and sent back a lot of information. Based on this information and the reality of my Great Qi, I designed an industrial system, which includes four major categories: military affairs, mining, workshops, and people's livelihood, with hundreds of subcategories.

We can start with the people's livelihood and military affairs. We now have most of the designs for the various Qingming looms, and after many days of dedicated exploration by skilled craftsmen, most of them have been improved and are now more efficient.

As for military affairs, forging armor is not difficult. Initially, I plan to build one hundred armor workshops, producing one hundred thousand sets of high-quality armor annually.

A tall, imposing military officer said, “Making armor is a good thing, but 100,000 sets are a bit too few. So why bother building those looms and such? We should use that money to build more armor workshops! I think 300 armor workshops would be enough to produce 300,000 sets a year.”

Lu Xiang said, "The Duke should know the principle of living within one's means. Military affairs and armor are expenditures. There must be income to have expenditures, and the more income, the greater the expenditures. And this weaving workshop is the source of the national treasury's annual revenue. Back then, Qingming accumulated wealth and soared to great heights through this. I believe the Duke's household must have used quite a bit of Qing brocade, right?"
The Qingjin brocade has been sold all the way to our Great Qi, which shows how much immortal silver Qingming has accumulated! This immortal silver is the foundation of Qingyuan, and the reason why people hold Qingyuan with confidence.

Therefore, this time, we not only need to build weaving workshops, but we need to build them on a large scale. Ninety percent of the initial allocated funds should be used for building these workshops. After the first batch of brocade is sold, we can use the profits to open the first workshop. This steady, long-term approach is the best way to ensure sustainable growth.

King Qi had already reviewed the information on the blue sky presented by Prime Minister Lu, and nodded, saying, "Brocade is the fastest to produce and is urgently needed by ordinary people, yielding the quickest results. The first batch of brocade will be produced in a few months. I believe Prime Minister Lu's plan is well-thought-out and is the foundation of a strong nation; it should be implemented!"

Once the King of Qi had made his decision, the ministers stopped criticizing and instead divided the work among themselves, thus beginning the path of replicating Qingming.

……

One month later, in the State of Zhao.

King Zhao summoned several senior ministers and cabinet ministers to discuss important matters in his study. This was King Zhao's custom; he would first consult with a few trusted advisors to get a general idea of ​​the situation before discussing it in court.

The people in the study were all old acquaintances; only one had changed in the past ten years. The reason for this was somewhat ironic: since the Zhao state implemented a comprehensive welfare system, the population had increased dramatically, greatly pleasing the Immortal Ancestor. Therefore, the King of Zhao and subsequent rulers naturally could not arbitrarily change the system. Moreover, the people's hearts were with the people; welfare could only be increased, not decreased. Even a slight reduction would immediately trigger signs of popular uprising.

Furthermore, after becoming wealthy, the people of Zhao clearly yearned for stability and were unwilling to continue living a life of constant risking their lives. Many ministers could only adopt a policy of non-interference, spending their days singing praises and extolling the emperor.

With the massive resource support from Qingming, even natural disasters are no problem, so the only thing left is man-made disasters. As long as people don't deliberately cause trouble, there won't be any man-made disasters.

Furthermore, thanks to the generous welfare benefits, the Zhao state's treasury was surprisingly balanced. However, from the King of Zhao down, all the ministers were well aware that this balance was only achieved thanks to the massive supply of low-priced goods from Qingming.

The population of Zhao has increased by a billion in the past ten years. In the past, grain prices would have skyrocketed, and the King of Zhao would have had to resort to war, otherwise it would have been a disaster that would destroy the country.

However, the price of grain in Zhao is now even lower than in Ji and Song, and only slightly higher than in the Western Jin Dynasty, which has been completely taken over by Qingming. This is all because of Qingming. Therefore, Zhao's current situation is extremely delicate, and its dependence on Qingming has reached a pathological level.

King Zhao and his ministers were fully aware of this, yet they were powerless to do anything about it. More than ten years passed, and even King Zhao became somewhat complacent, having not waged war for three years, and even neglecting to fight the mountain people. Throughout the entire state of Zhao, only Li Zhi was still relentlessly waging wars in the east and west.

But today, a group of high-ranking officials in the court suddenly noticed that there was a light in the eyes of the King of Zhao.

"My esteemed ministers, the Southern Qi recently announced reforms. That old fox, King Xiang of Qi, actually intends to fully emulate Qingming and establish the Qingming industrial system. I've read the contents of their reforms, and they've got some substance!"

"Hmph! That old bastard could steal the blueprints from Qingming, so why can't I? Look at this!"

A set of extremely complex design drawings was immediately presented to the assembled officials. The drawings not only depicted several advanced looms of varying sizes, but also a magic array specifically designed to power the looms. This magic array was extremely detailed, including not only the array diagram, but also a detailed explanation of the hardware configuration, as well as a device for stabilizing the output of spiritual energy.

In the past, King Zhao had acquired several looms and forging machines, but due to incomplete supporting magic arrays and unstable spiritual energy output, the lifespan of the looms was greatly shortened. Now, King Zhao has actually obtained a complete power supply magic array, no wonder he is so excited.

The general said, "This kind of formation should be a core secret of Qingming. Countless spies and informants from the nine kingdoms and aristocratic families have been dealt with because of it. In our Great Zhao alone, more than a hundred people have disappeared into thin air. How did Your Majesty obtain it?"

King Zhao laughed and said, "Heavenly secrets cannot be revealed."

But the officials were all well aware that this was mostly related to the two princesses in Qingming. Since the death of Consort Yuan, the two princesses' treatment in Qingming had visibly improved, and the gifts they sent back had become increasingly abundant. Of course, the price they paid was certainly not small.

King Zhao, brimming with confidence, declared, "With the spirit-offering array, we can establish a complete brocade weaving industry! Moreover, two of these looms are special models capable of producing high-quality brocade. That old codger from Southern Qi doesn't have such good stuff; their brocade industry is just waiting to be utterly crushed by us."

"Hmph, if Northern Qi can implement reforms, why can't our Great Zhao? We'll do even better!"

An old minister said, "I have heard that the Northern Qi will also issue the Qi Yuan at the same time, and then issue an edict to ban all private currencies in the country, requiring them to disappear on their own within six months. This two-pronged approach is the right way."

King Zhao coughed a few times and said, "...That's quite reasonable. However, we are so close to Qingming. Wouldn't abruptly canceling the private currency give Qingyuan even more room to maneuver?"

The old minister had already considered this problem and immediately said, "Following the example of the Southern Qi dynasty, we should issue Zhao Shenwu coins, and this problem will be easily solved."

King Zhao hesitated for a moment, then gritted his teeth and nodded. He understood what his ministers meant, but issuing private currency was simply too profitable, to the point that even he was somewhat addicted. Now, nine out of ten private currencies in Zhao were actually backed by King Zhao himself.

But King Zhao felt he couldn't be blamed. He was clearly exceptionally talented, but he couldn't cultivate immortality; he could only ascend the throne. Now that he was king, he had nowhere to deploy his troops, no room to become a wise and benevolent ruler for all time. What else could he do besides make money?
King Zhao nodded in agreement, and the atmosphere in the study became much more pleasant. The ministers offered their suggestions and even discovered the pattern that the larger the scale, the lower the unit price. Although the national treasury was empty due to the continuous issuance of currency, King Zhao's personal pockets were bulging.

Therefore, he gritted his teeth, took out a large sum of his private savings, and together with the national treasury, prepared to build two hundred weaving workshops in the initial stage, with ten looms in each workshop. This scale was twice as large as that of the Southern Qi Dynasty, which shows that the King of Zhao's ambition had finally been restored, revealing his true colors as he wanted to get rid of Qingming.

The ministers were once very ambitious, but after being soundly defeated by Wei Yuan in battle, the generals no longer dared to boast of their bravery in front of Wei Yuan, as if one of their knees had been broken. Later, the implementation of the welfare system meant that even food and supplies had to be provided by Qingming, thus breaking the other knee as well.

With no opportunity to use their talents, the ministers could only serve as sycophants. But were these ministers content with this? They were simply waiting for their chance.

The changes in Southern Qi made them suddenly realize that if Qingming could do it, why couldn't they?

Thus, the king and his ministers were of one mind and quickly agreed on a reform strategy. However, King Zhao did not choose to announce it in court, but instead broke it down and assigned it to various departments.

But such a large-scale operation couldn't be kept secret. Soon, news spread that the State of Zhao had also begun building large-scale weaving workshops. Before the looms even appeared, the price of silk doubled, and many princes and ministers made a fortune.

Upon hearing the news from Zhao, Southern Qi noticeably accelerated its efforts and increased its investment. The two countries began scrambling for artisans and raw silk, causing relations to deteriorate sharply. Had they not been geographically separated, armed conflict might have erupted between them.

During this time, Wei Yuan emerged from seclusion once, and the first thing he saw was this news. The messenger was deeply worried, but Wei Yuan remained unconcerned. How could they give up if he didn't let them try?
(End of this chapter)