Longzang

Chapter 781 Enjoying the Music Without Thinking of Zhao
The skyscraper gave Wei Yuan an even stronger feeling than a supermarket, but he was certain that acquiring this building would bring him a wealth of rewards.

The areas previously cleared were either residential areas or schools, with only one or two abandoned factories whose equipment had long since turned to ashes, leaving only the ruins of the factory buildings standing there.

These areas obviously don't require much technology, but this high-rise building is completely different. Just understanding its architectural structure alone could make Qingming's architectural technology advance by leaps and bounds.

The Azure Sky Palace is over a hundred meters tall, but that's all achieved through cultivation techniques. Often, True Lord Xuan Yue has to personally take action, refining each brick, about ten feet square, into a complete magical artifact. Finally, he refines the entire Azure Sky Palace. So, the hundred-foot Azure Sky Palace is actually a huge architectural artifact.

From the perspective of the outer world, this method is simple and crude, but it doesn't really require any skill; it's similar to a child building with blocks. In fact, in terms of materials, many materials in the outer world are far inferior to the natural materials of this world, let alone the refined spiritual materials.

For example, a spirit wood stick after being refined is far harder and more resilient than steel of the same size, yet weighs less than 20% of steel. The fact that mortals in the outer world can build towering structures hundreds of feet high using materials that are not even spirit materials is truly astonishing.

Furthermore, the remnant souls who can live in high-rise buildings should all be so-called high-level talents in the outer world. Most of them are from prestigious schools, have extensive knowledge and excellent memories, and should be able to remember a lot of what they learned in school, unlike Xu Wenwu and that academic failure, whose minds are blank, having returned all their knowledge to the school and teachers, and whose library books are mostly blank.

However, the building was dangerous, so Wei Yuan was in no hurry to explore it and continued to build the road. This time, he personally oversaw the construction, building the light path around the entire building until the building area was completely isolated, before he finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Wei Yuan then built an even larger road on the outer ring, adding another layer of security. Three months had passed by the time both rings of light roads were completed, but the building was finally firmly sealed off, and several streams of profound energy were also obtained.

In mid-March, Wei Yuan spent most of his time within the fragmented world, while the outside world was controlled by his various clones. The three prefectures, including Xiangrong, suffered greatly under Wei Yuan's relentless pressure, and banditry within them grew increasingly rampant. As the Grand Councilor of the Southern Military Council, Wei Yuan turned a blind eye to the banditry, leaving the various families with nowhere to turn for help.

The bandits were extremely brutal. Some wealthy families recruited cultivators overnight, purchased weapons, and built a guard team of over a thousand people. They also spent a lot of money to bring back Dharma Aspect cultivators to guard their homes.

However, the bandits still came knocking. Two or three hundred bandits easily defeated the thousand guards, who couldn't even find their way north. The group of Dao Foundation cultivators, who were usually arrogant and called themselves Dao Ancestors, couldn't even last three moves against the bandits. In the blink of an eye, they were cut in two, along with their flying swords.

Everyone rushed to fetch the high-ranking monk, Faxiang, but to their surprise, the room was covered in blood. Faxiang had only left behind a few blood-stained clothes, and was nowhere to be found. Judging from the bloodstains all over the room, the situation was likely dire.

In the blink of an eye, the mansion was breached. The bandits found the family genealogy and then arrested all the eldest sons and direct descendants of the family according to the genealogy, waiting for the ransom.

The gold, silver, and valuables in the mansion were looted without exception, and even the young and beautiful women were not spared. Then, the land deeds and property deeds found during the search were all burned. On the spot, some clan elders wept bitterly, some even fainting from grief. These bandits' tactics were aimed at eradicating the very foundation of their families!

This was true for all wealthy families; none could withstand a bandit attack. The richest man in the county even hired three Dharma Masters. However, before the bandits even arrived, two of the Dharma Masters died mysteriously, their bodies seemingly killed by wild animals. The third Dharma Master, terrified, forgot his payment and fled overnight.

After several battles, the people finally despaired and could no longer count on the government troops.

Everyone had a pretty good idea of ​​where the bandits came from. After all, there was only one bandit group in the entire Jin Kingdom that could fight against overwhelming odds, rout the guards, and even kill a Dharma Master.

Naturally, everyone had already used their connections to complain to their powerful backers in the capital. But at this moment, Zhao was attacking Jin with great urgency, and the situation in the south of Western Jin was deteriorating, with Jin retreating step by step. At this time, only Wei Yuan reported a great victory, not only recovering the lost territories of two counties, but also annihilating more than 100,000 Zhao troops.

The moment this report was submitted, the entire court was shaken. Those who had previously questioned Wei Yuan's military leadership abilities were now speechless.

Therefore, the King of Jin only reprimanded Wei Yuan for his poor governance, withheld half of his rewards, and never mentioned the matter of the five southwestern prefectures again. Seeing this, the Right Chancellor could only find another husband for his granddaughter.

At this point, the families of the three prefectures finally despaired and joined together to write to Wei Yuan, begging for the suppression of the bandits. They offered to hand over people to pay taxes, and set the tax at two taels per person, all able-bodied men and women, with children as a bonus.

Wei Yuan was satisfied, and so a steady stream of people began to be transported from the three prefectures to Qingming, with a million people entering Qingming every month.

Having taken in so many people, Wei Yuan felt he should at least give something in return to the Prince of Jin. So, he selected five hundred beautiful women from those kidnapped by bandits and sent them, along with a full set of armor for ten thousand infantrymen, to the capital. This was the first time Wei Yuan had given anything in return since assuming his post as the Southern Military Commissioner, voluntarily paying taxes to the court, and doing so on a grand scale, worth a million taels of silver.

A complete set of infantry armor, including a cuirass, would cost over a hundred taels of silver on the market. The armor alone would cost sixty taels, and the musket and ammunition would cost over forty taels. Add to that various accessories and small tools, which would also cost five taels.

The delivery of these military supplies to the capital greatly pleased the King of Jin, and even boosted the fortunes of the Western Jin Dynasty. It's unclear whether the King of Jin was more pleased with the ten thousand sets of equipment or the five hundred beauties.

In the Zhao court, King Zhao was furious countless times because of the Sixth Princess's crushing defeat. He berated the Sixth Princess mercilessly, and the Crown Prince also received a severe reprimand.

However, upon her return, Su Hongmei only claimed that she had fought her way out of the encirclement and managed to return to Zhao alone. As for the reasons for the defeat, she attributed it all to the veteran generals who led the army, saying that they had disobeyed orders and engaged the Qingming Army without authorization, only to be easily defeated and quickly collapse, thus leading to the situation where the entire army was surrounded inside Hanyang Pass.

As for the generals she accused, they were all locked up in Wei Yuan's cell and couldn't confront her.

Meanwhile, Su Ruyu miraculously led most of the troops back to Zhao territory despite being surrounded and intercepted by the Qingming army, gaining great fame and the potential to become a renowned general. Both of them were from the Su family, so the King of Zhao praised Su Hongmei highly but gently demoted her, stripping her of her general title and ordering her to atone for her crimes through meritorious service.

At this moment, with hundreds of thousands of Zhao soldiers in Wei Yuan's hands, Li Chengfeng advised that they should redeem these soldiers from Wei Yuan as soon as possible, otherwise things might get complicated and they might not be able to return.

After considering it, King Zhao agreed with the suggestion and discussed with his ministers what conditions they could use to persuade Wei Yuan to release the prisoners. Someone suggested opening up border trade, since Qing brocade was still flowing into Zhao in a steady stream, and border trade was impossible to stop anyway, so they might as well open it up.

However, this proposal was met with fierce opposition from Li Chengfeng, who said that if the border ban were lifted, Qingjin would become uncontrollable and would completely replace Zhaojin, so this matter must not be discussed.

The ministers all knew why Li Chengfeng opposed it, but no one said it outright; they were all watching Zhao Wang's expression. After a moment of contemplation, Zhao Wang surprisingly agreed to Li Chengfeng's suggestion, ceasing border trade and ordering Li Chengfeng to take the celestial silver to Qingming to redeem the people.

After the court assembly that day, it was said that the Crown Prince flew into a rage in his residence and beat two offending maids to death. Meanwhile, Li Chengfeng, carrying Qi Xianyin, immediately rushed to Qingming to exchange Zhao soldiers with Wei Yuan.

When Li Chengfeng arrived in Qingming, Wei Yuan personally received him. After all, Wei Yuan always greeted those who brought immortal silver with a smile.

After the two sat down, Li Chengfeng explained his purpose. Unexpectedly, Wei Yuan sighed and said, "I'm afraid Brother Li will bring back far fewer people this time. Alas, if you had given me a heads-up earlier, I would have had someone else come instead."

Li Chengfeng was taken aback and quickly asked, "What happened?"

"Brother Li will know at a glance."

So the two arrived at a military camp specifically set up for the wounded soldiers of Zhao, which housed a total of 50,000 wounded soldiers. This time, Li Chengfeng found that the facilities in the camp had improved, and the food for the wounded soldiers was much better than before, with meat in everyone's bowl.

Throughout the camp, beautiful and aloof medical practitioners could be seen examining the wounded soldiers, but there were also many pretty young girls dressed in white, dedicated to nursing care.

Li Chengfeng's heart sank, so he randomly found a Zhao soldier who had almost recovered and asked, "Your injuries have almost healed, why don't you go back to Zhao?"

The Zhao soldier said, "I am so happy here that I don't miss Zhao."

(End of this chapter)