Zongwu: Aspiring to be the mastermind behind the scenes

Chapter 376 A Paradise on Earth, the Mo Family's Mechanical City
Whether Yu Huatian's arrogance stemmed from a sudden rise in power, or whether he had already decided to embark on a path of loyalty only to the emperor, only he himself knew the truth.

Liu Xi's plans will not change because of this incident.

The events that occurred within the Eastern Depot were reported to the emperor in almost a quarter of an hour.

The emperor snorted coldly, neither commenting nor denying it.

While it may seem that they haven't made any statement on the matter, their attitude has actually been revealed.

It's important to understand that the reason why Yu Huatian from the Western Depot went to cause trouble for the Eastern Depot was because the Eastern Depot interfered with the Western Depot's investigation.

Strictly speaking, the fault lies with the Eastern Depot.

Moreover, the Western Depot is now working for the emperor!
Normally, the emperor should have ordered the Eastern Depot to cooperate with the Western Depot.

However, despite this incident, the emperor made no statement.

This was essentially a slight crackdown on the Western Depot, and it also showed that they did not want the Eastern Depot to be completely abolished.

Liu Xi made the right bet.

The current young emperor is adept at maintaining balance. Even though he heavily relies on the Western Depot, he will never allow it to become too powerful and turn it into the next Cao Zhengchun.

Next, we need to prove the value of the Eastern Depot.

Liu Xi has already found a lead on the intelligence network that the Western Depot has been searching for through Iron Claw Flying Eagle.

After all, Iron Claw Flying Eagle's rise to the position of head of the Eastern Depot was arguably one of the most important intelligence networks among Zhu Wushi's numerous subordinates.

There must be one member of the Iron Claw Flying Eagle in the top-secret intelligence network that Zhu Wushi is trying to hide.

Liu Xi used the Iron Claw Flying Eagle to trace its intelligence network bit by bit, and once he found it, he hid it.

They were just waiting for the Western Depot to completely fail, and for the emperor to hand over this task to the Eastern Depot.

That was when he submitted this intelligence network to the emperor.

The power struggle between the Eastern Depot and the Western Depot is just a microcosm of the countless struggles currently taking place in the imperial court.

With the downfall of two powerful figures in the imperial court, Cao Zhengchun and Zhu Wushi, a large number of officials were also brought down, freeing up a great deal of official positions and benefits.

Various factions are vying fiercely for these interests.

As the only powerful figure in the court at present, even if Grand Secretary Pei Ju claimed to be ill, he could not stop the crowds of people coming to visit him.

For a time, the area in front of the Pei residence was bustling with activity.

This annoyed Zhou Ming so much that he simply stayed in his study all day, working on his masterpiece.

The so-called masterpiece is naturally the novel "Detective Lu Xiaofeng".

Now in its fourth installment, the core case is undoubtedly the ins and outs of the Zhu Wushi bribery case.

This book was originally intended to explore ways to trigger talent, but now it's just for entertainment.

After all, there are very few forms of entertainment in this world. When you're bored, you can pick up a pen and write something to pass the time.

"Give this book to the Wenzong Academy and instruct them to publish it only after the imperial court has announced the full truth of the Iron-Blooded Marquis case!"

"Yes."

"Are the guests still here?"

"No, and two more people have arrived."

"It's so annoying."

Zhou Ming frowned: "Alright, Uncle Qiang, go prepare the carriage. I don't want to stay in the capital anymore. It's been half a year since my last trip around the world. It's good to go out and have some fun."

"Yes."

These ministers who came to visit Pei Ju must have held some position in the court; otherwise, they wouldn't even be able to enter the gate.

But for Zhou Ming, these people had never even entered his field of vision.

In this world, there are protagonists, supporting characters, extras, and background figures.

In Zhou Ming's eyes, these so-called high-ranking officials in the imperial court were not even worth mentioning, and he naturally never cared about them.

Although the uproar caused by the deaths of Zhu Wushi and Cao Zhengchun is still sweeping through the court and gradually spreading to the martial arts world and other places.

But for Zhou Ming, this was actually the end of a drama.

Those so-called controversies are entirely unnecessary and left blank.

Although it exists in reality, once it is written down, it is suspected of being filler.

The confrontation between Liu Xi and Yu Huatian is the only one Zhou Ming should pay attention to.

Because both of them are genuine villains, they can barely be considered supporting characters in this world, and they are entitled to a certain amount of screen time.

As for the others, they weren't even background figures; no matter how fierce the competition was, he didn't care at all.

Since we're going out to have fun, we should naturally have a great time.

Zhou Ming decided to deal with the matters at hand first.

On the Ming side, there's basically nothing going on.

Lu Xiaofeng and Li Xunhuan have been busy searching for the Black Stone Organization, but it is clear that they cannot find it within the territory of the Ming Dynasty.

In the south of the Ming Dynasty, it was as stable as Mount Tai.

At sea, the Giant Whale Gang's business continued to expand, reaching the sea areas of the Song Dynasty in the east and the Sui and Tang Dynasties in the south.

In the Western Regions, Huo Tianqing was an excellent servant.

In the Song Kingdom, Dongfang Bubai's rebellion was still in the preparation stage.

The Qing dynasty's forces had already infiltrated the country, but only briefly, and they were currently preparing for a rebellion.

Moreover, the Qing Dynasty not only closed itself off from the world, but also implemented an extremely strict ban on martial arts to prevent ordinary people from practicing martial arts to strengthen themselves and rebel against the court, which directly resulted in very few martial arts masters in the country.

Even if they are only at the Innate Realm, they can still be considered among the top experts in the world.

Zhou Ming had absolutely no interest in their combat prowess, which was far too low.

Even the organization's infiltration of Qing China was actually a spontaneous act by its members, approved only by Ai Haibara, and Zhou Ming didn't care at all.

In the Central Plains, the royal family is weak, and even the emperor's orders cannot leave the palace. There are countless powerful figures in the martial arts world, creating a vibrant and thriving scene.

The Northern World Society has risen to prominence, and its sphere of influence is expanding rapidly.

During the Tang Dynasty, Empress Wu Zetian suppressed the world. Although undercurrents were surging, nothing seemed amiss on the surface.

During the Sui Dynasty, there were rebel armies everywhere, but most of them were not yet capable.

Although Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling have been growing for a year, they are still not up to par. Not to mention the future Young Marshal's Army, even the Twin Dragons Gang is nowhere to be seen.

Finally, there is the Great Qin, located in the far west of the entire land of China.

It must be said that the Qin Dynasty truly deserves its reputation as the country with the longest history in the world, and many of the Zhou royal treasures have now been acquired by the Qin Dynasty.

With his status as Master Yoda, Zhou Ming had already collected most of the knowledge belonging to the Great Qin Dynasty. He had even obtained most of the Gongshu family's top secrets using the new technology researched by Tianjing.

However, looking at the martial arts world, the gains were meager.

The people planted within the Taoist, Yin-Yang, and Mohist schools haven't yet made contact with the higher-ups, let alone obtained top-secret information. But there's nothing that can be done about it; after all, Zhou Ming's actions against the Qin Dynasty only occurred within the last year.

Which organization would allow someone who has only been with them for less than a year to have direct access to top-level secrets?

"However, the Taoists and the Yin-Yang School are one thing, but the Mohists and Confucians seem to have a chance..."

Zhou Ming recalled the original plot and thought to himself.

The Mohist school of mechanical arts, along with the Gongshu school of mechanical arts, are both renowned schools of mechanical arts with long histories and are regarded as the two major sources of all mechanical arts in the world.

Since the states had been constantly at war, Mozi, the founder of the Mohist school, tried his best to stop the war, but he was never given an important position by the rulers of the states. Disheartened, he retired to the mountains.

Later, he led many disciples of the Mohist school to build the Mohist Mechanical City amidst the towering mountains. More than three hundred years have passed since then.

Over the years, the scale of the Mo Family's Mechanical City has become incredibly large.

Accompanied by the continuous clanging and banging of iron, a chaotic yet rhythmic sound of hammering, Master Xu placed a piece of forged iron into the water for water quenching.

A moment later, I took it out and looked at it, and couldn't help but shake my head.

"Another piece of iron wasted. Sigh, every step of forging a sword of the level of a sword manual requires utmost caution..."

“Master Xu, why are you always fixated on this primitive method of blacksmithing? The power hammer I developed is faster and better, isn’t it great?”

The speaker was a young man named Wu Liangtian, who was a projection of Zhou Ming.

Upon hearing this, Master Xu immediately glared at him and said angrily, "Do you know what 'forging a sword a thousand times' means? Only by using your own strength, hammering it one strike at a time, can you forge a truly famous sword. Has any famous sword been created from that power hammer you've been researching so far?"

Wu Liangtian's lips twitched, and he forced a smile, saying, "So, that's why I've come to find you again."

Master Xu immediately became alert and said warily, "You're not trying to ask me for strange iron again, are you? Let me tell you, the inability to forge a famous sword is fundamentally a matter of craftsmanship, not the materials."

"Your broken power hammer, no matter how fine the iron, could never forge a famous sword!"

"Hey, I know, that's why I've changed my research focus. I'm not researching famous swords anymore, I'm researching battle armor now. So... Master Xu, how about you donate another piece of strange iron to me?"

"Get lost! You said you borrowed that last piece, and you still haven't returned it!"

Master Xu flicked his long sleeves and walked out of the forging room.

Wu Liangtian followed closely behind.

The Mohists emphasized equality, and their organizational structure was extremely flat, consisting of only three classes.

The Grand Master, leader, and disciple of the Mohist school.

Moreover, even among these three classes, the difference in status is not particularly significant.

Especially in the Mohist holy land of the Mechanical City, the relationships between people are very close to the Great Harmony.

Within the city, there are large-scale public canteens.

Master Xu was one of the leaders of the Mohist school, but most of the time he didn't do anything special and just ate in the public canteen.

Wu Liangtian followed him closely and sat down to eat with him, and Master Xu didn't seem to mind.

Despite Xu Fuzi's initial disdain, the two actually had a very good relationship.

Otherwise, Master Xu wouldn't have lent Wu Liangtian a piece of strange iron.

So-called "different iron" can be either innate or acquired.

The innate ones are those that exist naturally, such as cold iron, black iron, and meteorite iron.

The day after tomorrow is man-made.

However, in this era, even artificially created iron was often only produced under circumstances of great coincidence, and its production was very unstable.

For example, the famous "Five Metals Essence" is made by smelting the essence of five metals: gold, silver, copper, iron, and tin.

To fuse these five essences into one, and to make it sufficiently hard, is naturally no easy feat.

Master Xu comes from a family of swordsmiths. The family has been passing down their skills for generations, and each generation has been exploring various methods of forging rare iron. However, so far, they have not been able to consistently produce the finest metals. If they can achieve even one-tenth of that, they would consider it quite good.

Therefore, these iron oxides are extremely precious.

If this is the case with what we acquire later in life, how much more so with what we acquire later in life?

That means every piece used is one less available, and they can't be produced anymore.

What Master Xu lent to Wu Liangtian was a piece of innate iron called the Earth Mother Magnet.

The reason for this is that although Wu Liangtian has only been a member of the Mohist school for less than a year, he is a true mechanical genius. The power hammer he designed and manufactured, with the help of the Mohist school's mechanical techniques, reduced the difficulty of forging ordinary steel by many times, greatly accelerating the manufacturing speed of ordinary weapons.

Despite Xu Fuzi's apparent disdain, he actually quite approved of the power hammer, and Wu Liangtian, who created it, naturally also earned his approval.

"Hehe, Master Xu, come on, have a chicken leg."

Wu Liangtian, with a forced smile, handed over a chicken leg.

Master Xu sighed and said, "You're really troublesome. Fine, I'll lend you another piece of strange iron."

"Really? That's wonderful! Thank you, Master Xu! You're so generous!"

"Let me make this clear beforehand: I can't give you a piece of innate rare iron; I can only give you a piece of acquired iron."

"The day after tomorrow? That's fine too..."

Wu Liangtian's smile vanished, and he casually picked up the chicken leg again.

"You..."

Master Xu shook his head helplessly, but a hint of a smile remained in his eyes.

"By the way, why haven't I seen Master Ban lately? Did he go to Mirror Lake Medical Clinic again?"

"Yes. I heard that some anti-Qin heroes have come to Jinghu Medical Manor, and the Grand Master asked him to take the opportunity to bring those people to the Mechanical City."

"Heroes against Qin..."

Wu Liangtian, biting into a chicken leg, turned to look at the other Mo family disciples dining in the canteen.

They were said to be disciples of the Mohist school, but many of them wore clothing in different styles from various countries and spoke different dialects.

"The number of anti-Qin righteous men in our Mohist city is increasing. The Grand Master is away for long periods, and every few days a new batch of anti-Qin righteous men is sent over. At this rate, I really don't know whether we should be called the Mohist school or... the Anti-Qin school!"

"Xiao Tian, ​​watch your words!"

Master Xu said solemnly, "We are all brothers of the Mohist school, so it is only right that we help each other out."

Wu Liangtian shook his head: "Brothers of the Mohist school, haha, even among the Mohists, there are differences. Besides, this is the Mechanized City, but if things continue like this, I'm afraid it will become the headquarters of the anti-Qin alliance. This goes against the original intention of establishing the Mechanized City!"

Master Xu fell silent.

As an old Mozi, he naturally knew that the reason why Mozi built the mechanical city was because he tried to maneuver between various countries, but could never stop the war between them.

However, he did not want his mechanical skills to become a weapon in wars between nations, so he hid in these mountains and wilderness.

The establishment of the Mechanical City, in essence, was to create a peaceful place for all those in the world who did not want to be involved in war.

In fact, the city of the mechanical city has always followed this principle.

Therefore, for hundreds of years, people have called the Mechanical City a paradise on earth and a demonic realm beyond the heavens.

This place is far removed from worldly wars, the only peaceful land among the seven kingdoms!
(End of this chapter)