Longzang

Chapter 1197 Leaving Him with No Way Out

In the early winter of the nineteenth year of the Hongjing reign, the first snow fell in the northern lands, and even in the relatively mild-climate Zhao and Southern Qi states, the season of biting cold winds arrived.

The autumn harvest had just ended, and every household had stored up their grain; it was a season when people had money and needed clothing. At this time, the brocade weaving workshops of both Northern Qi and Zhao had been completed, making the timing perfect. This demonstrates that both states possessed a wealth of capable ministers.

At this moment, Wei Yuan emerged from seclusion again, bringing with him a newly refined batch of Foundation Strengthening Pills, totaling as many as 200,000 pills. This batch of Foundation Strengthening Pills was specifically for the Dao Foundation stage, or more precisely, for the template Dao Foundation stage, and had a slight effect on improving aptitude.

Wei Yuan originally estimated that the so-called "minor" improvement would be roughly one in ten thousand, meaning only one in ten thousand people would be able to improve their aptitude. Under normal circumstances, this so-called "minor" improvement was just a nice-sounding term and had no real meaning.

However, Wei Yuan didn't mind. He told everyone to just take these pills as cultivation pills, which would be perfect as year-end bonuses. A single Foundation Strengthening Pill costs about ten Qing Yuan on the market, but since Wei Yuan's hand-refined pills are naturally more expensive, they are worth about fifteen Qing Yuan.

Wei Yuan directly distributed 50,000 tokens at the Lü family ancestral land, rewarding those who had contributed among the 100,000 Dao Foundation cultivators. Then, he activated his high-speed flying machine again, soaring through the sky with a roar, and returned to Qingming. This time, the heavens no longer wanted to look at them.

Upon returning to Qingming, Wei Yuan handed the pills to the relevant officials for distribution, while he himself went to his residence in the immortal city to begin handling Qingming's recent political affairs.

He settled down in the study he hadn't visited in a long time; the desk was empty, without a single official document.

Wei Yuan didn't take it seriously. Nowadays, Qingming could even skillfully use the Multiverse Prosperity technique to build his Dao Foundation, and various city and government offices required him to be proficient in using the Multiverse Prosperity technique for office work. Some important positions even required him to be proficient in dual-task applications.

Wei Yuan could then use the Prosperity of All Realms. With a slight thought, he entered the Prosperity of All Realms.

To facilitate their work and affairs, the cultivators have now established a dedicated government affairs system in the bustling world. Once inside the system, an interface will appear, and based on each person's identity and permissions, they can find their own official duties within the system and process them.

Wei Yuan also had his own unique interface. As a realm lord, his treatment was naturally different from others. Although it was called an interface, it was actually a virtual palace, extremely ethereal and lofty. When Wei Yuan stood inside, he immediately felt that his mental world had been elevated.

The main hall is a place where every step reveals a new scene, and each scene has a meaning. For example, a snow-capped peak in the distance, called the End of Heaven, is covered with snow lotuses, which represent official business that requires Wei Yuan's approval.

Wei Yuan smiled and ascended into the air, slowly flying to the top of the snow-capped peak. He looked around and then discovered that there wasn't a single snow lotus on the entire peak, not even a single petal in sight!

This means that nothing requires Wei Yuan's approval.

Wei Yuan's smile remained unchanged, because he didn't know if there was a back door in this government affairs hall built specifically for him, or if it would record his every word and action.

To prevent officials from abusing their power for personal gain, the Qingming government system has a meticulous record-keeping function. Wei Yuan wasn't sure if he was among them, and he felt it necessary to instill the concept that the realm lord is above the law in everyone's eyes.

Wei Yuan moved to the corner of the mountain, where there was a small pavilion. A stream formed by melting snow flowed around the pavilion, offering a stunning view. Large and small ice blocks floated in the stream, each one representing a matter that needed to be reported to Wei Yuan.

The entire stream is now filled with broken ice, completely obscuring the water. A long line of broken ice stretches along the stream.

Wei Yuan sighed. He needed to report countless things he knew, but there wasn't a single decision he had to make himself. This Qingming…

He sighed helplessly, sat down in the pavilion, and began to review the official documents, while the ice floes in the stream melted away one by one. There were several thousand documents that Wei Yuan needed to know every day; this time, Wei Yuan had been in seclusion for several months, so the official documents had piled up to hundreds of thousands.

Fortunately, Wei Yuan possessed powerful divine sense and activated over ten thousand mission abilities simultaneously, causing the ice fragments in the stream to gradually decrease. Two days later, the stream returned to its clear state, with not a single ice fragment remaining.

Looking at the clear stream, Wei Yuan sighed inwardly. He had been watching slowly and had actually finished watching it all.

Just then, a thought suddenly struck him, and he discovered that a seven-colored fairy light flashed on the snow mountain, and a snow lotus actually appeared!
Wei Yuan was overjoyed and almost instantly teleported to the snow lotus, carefully picked it, and savored it.

This official matter concerns the simultaneous commencement of large-scale textile workshop construction in both the Southern Qi and Zhao states, which have been completed in recent days, all utilizing technology stolen from Qingming.

That would have been fine, but both Zhao and Southern Qi began to buy up raw silk on a large scale, constantly driving up the price of silk. This caused many silk farmers who had been supplying Qingming for a long time to change their minds. Some of them even tore up their long-term contracts and secretly sold all their silk to the brocade workshops of Zhao and Qi at high prices.

The person in charge of this matter was actually Xu Wenwu. This guy, after all, came from another world; he was adept at handling trade-related affairs.

Xu Wenwu said that the trend of silk farmers breaking contracts must not be allowed to continue, otherwise the contracts signed by Qingming will have no binding force whatsoever. Currently, Qingming has a special trade office in the Zhao Kingdom, which wields considerable power.

Therefore, Xu Wenwu suggested that the trade offices in various regions should arrest all the silk farmers who had breached the contracts, confiscate all their profits from selling silk, and imprison them. If this action wasn't taken to establish authority, future trade and navigation treaties would be rendered meaningless.

Then Xu Wenwu proposed an extremely ruthless strategy: to raise the purchase price of raw silk this year by a factor of three! Such a high silk price would cause all the brocade workshops in Qi and Zhao to suffer huge losses, bankrupting them all within a year. Even Qingming was losing money at this price, but this loss was negligible to Qingming, yet it was enough to destroy the silk industry that the two countries had invested heavily in.

This matter involves the State of Zhao, and since Zhao Li Xianren has a special relationship with Wei Yuan, Xu Wenwu did not dare to act on his own and specifically sent the matter to Wei Yuan for approval.

Wei Yuan, however, realized that Xu Wenwu was not afraid to act on his own initiative, but rather that he seemed to be outside a certain inner circle, which was why this official document had appeared before him.

The document was accompanied by a large amount of data, all detailing the current state of the silk industry in both Qi and Zhao. In terms of intelligence gathering capabilities, Qingming far surpassed both countries.

After reading it, Wei Yuan pondered for a moment and set the tone: anyone who dares to break the contract must be arrested with all their might. Even if Zhao officials obstruct the investigation, it must be carried out to the end. No one who breaks the contract should be let off the hook. They should be fined and imprisoned according to the law, without any leniency or exceptions.

On this point, Qingming's authority cannot be violated in the slightest. Wei Yuan specifically approved the use of force if necessary, even allowing the army to enter the Zhao state.

Secondly, the purchase price of silk will remain unchanged, which means that Qingming will not receive a single silk thread except through the contract.

No sooner had this approval been issued than Xu Wenwu appeared outside the hall, specifically to see Wei Yuan. Upon seeing Wei Yuan, he said, "Without raising prices at all, we won't be able to buy any silk this year! Long-term contracts only account for 20% of our usual purchases. Next year, our machine-made brocade production will also plummet!"

Wei Yuan smiled slightly and said, "Isn't your goal to put Zhao Qi in a difficult position?"

"Of course! They have treacherous ambitions and must be dealt a heavy blow!"

Wei Yuan smiled and said, "If we don't accept the silk, that will be a real blow to them."

Xu Wenwu was puzzled, but Wei Yuan said, "Just you wait and see, we'll see soon enough."

Xu Wenwu had no choice but to nod and prepare to carry out the order. Wei Yuan then stopped him and asked, "Who do you usually get along with the most and talk to the most?"

Without hesitation, Xu Wenwu rattled off seven or eight names. Wei Yuan nodded but said nothing.

After Xu Wenwu left, Wei Yuan seemed to be deep in thought. Sure enough, none of the cultivators from Taichu Palace were among the names Xu Wenwu mentioned.

……

After March, heavy snow fell in the north, and Zhao Qi was also covered in silver.

Taking advantage of the cold weather, a large number of new aircraft from both countries entered the market, causing a huge stir.

In the Southern Qi royal palace, the King of Qi looked at the memorial before him, his face gradually darkening. Before he had even finished reading it, he forcefully threw the memorial away, angrily shouting, "What is going on here?!"

More than ten ministers stood on both sides, none of them uttering a sound.

King Qi nearly roared, "We wove over a million bolts of brocade, and after more than a month on the market, only tens of thousands have been sold?! Why aren't you all speaking up? Are you all mute? I ordered you to secretly ban the Azure Brocade, did you actually ban it?"

One minister, bracing himself, said, "It has already been banned. In the past month, only five thousand bolts of Qingjin have been sold."

"Okay, Qingjin is banned too, so what's going on here?!"

Lu Xiang sighed and reported, “Lord Mi has done his best to ban the blue brocade. I have been traveling to various markets and towns for the past month and have only just discovered that the root of the problem lies in the poverty of the people. They simply cannot afford so much brocade. The amount we have sold so far is the limit. This is a matter of my oversight, and I beg Your Majesty to punish me.”

King Qi swept everything off the table in one gulp, angrily shouting, "Qingming produces at least ten times more brocade than us, if not a hundred times! Where did all their brocade go? Wasn't it sold to the people of this region? How come they can even sell it?"

Lu Xiang forced a smile and said, "Qingming is rich and prosperous, unlike our country."

King Qi narrowed his eyes slightly and asked, word by word, "Why are the people of Qingming so wealthy?"

(End of this chapter)