Cursed Mountains and Seas

Chapter 261 The governor is trying to make things difficult for me? No way!

West Garden, Renshou Palace.

The Daoist Emperor, with a crane-like figure and an ethereal air, sat upright on a jade throne, wearing a Daoist robe. On the table in front of him was a mother-of-pearl box and two newly opened secret memorials.

The ruler of the state was clearly in a good mood. Although it was raining in the suburbs, the sky above the entire capital city of Yujing was sunny and breezy.

He carefully examined the five immortal herbs that he had finally gathered in their entirety, and his hands trembled slightly with excitement.

"Hu Ruzhen has served the southeast for seven years with great merit and loyalty to me. These two flowers from the Five Temples Divine Treasury, which I obtained with great effort, are proof of this."

Now it seems that all the impeachments against him by those upright censors of the Censorate were baseless and nonsense!

"How dare you maliciously slander my most important advisor! You deserve to die!"

The legendary elixir of immortality, the Five Organs Returning to Truth Pill, was now within reach. When this Daoist emperor looked back at the "loyal ministers" who had brought him the precious medicine, he naturally found them particularly pleasing to the eye.

Holding the mother-of-pearl inlaid box, he wished he could immediately use his skills as a first-grade [Alchemy Master] to start refining pills.

But upon seeing the other two secret memorials, he had to temporarily suppress this impulse.

His gaze was sharp as a knife, leaving deep marks on the pages of the two secret memorials:
"Yun Chen and Wang Fugui, whom I personally selected, have not disappointed me. They caught the tail of that secret organization so quickly."

Their official cover is called 'Guishan Academy', which originated from Fang Xiaoru and his tenth clan, who committed seven major crimes during the reign of Emperor Taizong, no, Emperor Chengzu.

Those former officials of the Fang family who were swiftly promoted due to the "Recommendation Law" but were later dismissed by Emperor Chengzu possessed valuable items such as the "Imperial Edict to Execute Ten Clans of Fang Xiaoru (Fake)" and the "Three Silences" edict.

They want to be the powerful and influential family of my Great Zhao Dynasty for generations to come, and even to depose and install emperors with a single word! Very well, very well indeed!

The Zheng He treasure map, which was rumored to have been burned by Liu Daxia, was actually hidden away by them, leading to the situation described in "On Sea Power" in our Great Zhao Dynasty—the lost sixty years.

Wang Fugui narrowly escaped death to capture the Immortal Scum Rejuvenator, and seized from him a portion of the sea chart and a complete set of blueprints for the Heavenly Crafted Treasure Ship, the Nine-Bend Turbid River Ship, which are irrefutable evidence.

You still dare to shamelessly claim that it is for the sake of the Great Zhao's country and society, and that we should not waste people's money and resources?

You're all just trying to make money, money that rightfully belongs to me!

Previously, Wang Cheng had been trying to use the White Scale Guards' channels to send the whistleblower letter directly to the emperor's desk, so that they could experience the overwhelming power of the imperial authority.

However, he was always hindered by the fact that he had gleaned some secrets of the Guishan Academy from Fengzhou Shanren through the "Sihai Tongbao" (a type of incense), and he could not produce any witnesses or physical evidence.

This time, the Guishan Bookstore clashed with Huan Tong Xian, and Huan Tong Xian, who had personally witnessed the Guishan Bookstore and Zheng He's treasure map, died at his hands.

Using the relics on this scum of the immortal as evidence for divination is most appropriate.

In addition, Wang Cheng actually had over a hundred boxes of Zheng He's treasure maps that he had snatched from Guishan Bookstore.

Even the least important part is enough to prove that state secrets have been stolen and that there are corrupt officials within the country.

This incident dragged a large number of scholars and officials who participated in the theft of the treasure map back then, as well as their descendants, into the mess, and incidentally tore off a corner of the veil from the Guishan Academy.

As long as the White Scale Guards investigate in this direction, they will surely find something, enough to give the Guishan Publishing House a major headache.

As for the blueprints of the Heavenly Treasure Ship [Nine-Bend Turbid River Ship], they were originally designed to fit the national treasure [One-Eyed Stone Man], and were used to criticize Guishan Bookstore as one of the most crucial pieces of evidence.

Upon seeing this, the ruler of the state felt a surge of rebellious spirit and resolved to build the Heavenly Craftsmanship Ship Nine-Bend Turbid River Ship as soon as possible, so as to regain control of the Great Zhao's coastal defense.

Keep looking down.

"The exact size of Guishan Bookstore is currently unknown, and it has not yet been thoroughly investigated which officials in the central government are involved, but two core members have been identified."

One was Fengzhou Shanren, who was in his hometown mourning his father, and the other was You Zhende, the governor of Minzhou. We inadvertently stumbled upon the latter's secret plot to collude with the Japanese pirates.”

This time, Wang Cheng made thorough preparations to directly complain to the emperor.

Not only did he take action himself, but he also brought Lu Yunchen and Hu Ruzhen along.

This move was not merely to protect Hu Ruzhen and do him a great favor; it was essentially for his own benefit.

After all, who can guarantee that this powerful Japanese pirate force, after capturing Minzhou and bringing down Hu Ruzhen, will not respond to the command of the Frankish Kingdom as its master and head straight for the Eastern Sea Kingdom of Yingzhou?
Therefore, Wang Cheng's idea was simple: to achieve a decisive victory in one battle, and to use the power of the Great Zhao to cripple the Chezhidan, so that they would have no strength left to help the Franks in the short term!
Even in its decline, the Great Zhao Dynasty remains the most powerful force in China, the East China Sea, and the South China Sea, without exception. If, with such a powerful backer, one still only knows how to fight alone, it would be a disgrace to the official robes one wears.

Emperor Daojun read the secret memorial several times and had to accept one fact:
"Those who fight to the death in the court, whether they are corrupt officials or upright officials, are most likely treacherous ministers."

The only difference is that the turbid current is openly evil, while the pure current is covertly evil; one is a true villain, the other a hypocrite; one is treacherous, the other even more treacherous.

The former can make money for me and bear the infamy, while the latter only tries to steal my money and then curses me in return.

A small group of traitors from the Guishan Bookstore even wanted to kill me!

From the emperor's perspective, the definitions of treacherous and loyal officials are obviously different from those of ordinary people, and he may even continue to use officials he knows are treacherous.

He cannot do whatever he wants.

The final petition came from three individuals: Hu Ruzhen, the governor of seven prefectures; Lu Yunchen, his trusted confidant; and Wang Fugui, a local official from Minzhou who discovered the conspiracy.
"How should we deal with Governor You Zhende, who has been identified as a core member of the Guishan Book Society and is preparing to collude with the Japanese pirates in Chichidan to disrupt the southeast?"

None of them wanted to take responsibility; they were all asking for instructions from their superiors and shifting blame.

Wang Cheng consulted his superior, Lu Yunchen, who then accompanied Wang Cheng to pay a visit to Qi Yuanjing. The three of them then secretly went together to find Hu Ruzhen, the person being targeted.

In theory, the governor of seven prefectures had the power to take over the governor of one prefecture during wartime, but as a mature politician, Hu Ruzhen would never commit such a taboo in officialdom. Instead, he continued to consult with the ruler of the state.

The example of Shen Kun, the top scholar who died in prison last year, serves as a cautionary tale for them.

This person was the top scholar in the imperial examination of the 20th year of the Shaozhi reign, and was appointed as a compiler in the Hanlin Academy. He was also the only top scholar from Huai'an Prefecture in the thousand-year history of the imperial examination.

However, Shen Kun was upright and did not curry favor with the powerful, which led to him not being given important responsibilities.

Until the thirty-fifth year of the Shaozhi reign, he was appointed Chancellor of the Imperial Academy in Southern Zhili. In August, he returned to Huai'an to observe mourning for his mother.

Upon discovering that his hometown had been invaded by Japanese pirates and that the government troops of the Twenty-Four Guards had fled at the mere sight of them, he immediately sold his property and recruited over a thousand local soldiers, whom he personally trained. In the following years, he fought against the Japanese pirates and won a series of victories, earning him the nickname "Top Scholar's Army."

Governor Li Tianchong praised his strategic planning and defense achievements, and specially recommended him to the court, appointing him as the Chancellor of the Imperial Academy in the capital.

Unfortunately, before he could take office, Hu Yingjia and other officials secretly reported him, accusing him of privately training local militias and plotting rebellion.

Last year, in the thirty-ninth year of the Shaozhi reign, the upright censor Lin Run, based on rumors, impeached Shen Kun for being tyrannical in his hometown and abusing his power. As a result, Shen Kun was stripped of his official rank, arrested, and tortured in the capital, where he eventually died in prison (from hunger and illness) in the Bailinwei prison.

Serving under Emperor Shaozhi, even those who were loyal to the emperor and patriotic, and who were politically correct enough to recruit local soldiers to fight against Japanese pirates, could die so tragically.

This time, they are targeting a prefectural governor, so they must be extra careful.

The ruler of the state was also hesitant to act rashly.

The corrupt faction that was supposed to be working to raise money for him has gradually spiraled out of control over the years. It is unexpected that the "pure faction," or perhaps even the entire court, harbors a chilling secret society.

Taking action against one of the core members could very well have far-reaching consequences.

After pondering for a long time, he finally made his decision:
"Secretly seize You Zhen's position without making a sound, and use the 'Three Questions of Sang Hongyang' to torture him severely, making him reveal all the secrets of the Japanese pirates and the Guishan Book Society."

Afterwards, let's give him a dignified end for falling into the water while patrolling the dike!

The enemy of the ruler is an entire group lurking in the shadows; no single individual could possibly be his match.

It can make anyone in the Great Zhao territory die in a reasonable and silent way.

It was far better than dying by suicide after being shot eight times in the back, and it wouldn't have provoked his accomplices to act desperately.

Once we have the information in You Zhen's mind, we will deal with it slowly.

With this secret decree reaching the Minzhou government, it meant that regardless of whether You Zhende had any problems or not, he would never have the chance to come back alive to cause trouble for Wang Cheng again.

If the minister was originally a treacherous official, it would be exactly what they wanted; if the minister was originally a loyal official, he would no longer be trustworthy. They would be forced to swallow the bitter pill for the sake of the greater good, and if he harbored any resentment, it would be considered disrespectful to the emperor.

This tactic has been used time and again by countless political strategists throughout history, and it has brought down one powerful figure after another. To this day, there is still no solution to it.

I, Wang Fugui, have offended the governor and he'll make things difficult for me? No way!

Rumble.
Wow.
Dark clouds loomed high in the sky, pressing down on the earth, while storms from the depths of the vast ocean swept towards China.

A torrential downpour of white rain poured down on the southeast coast, as if the sky had been overturned and the sea and sky had been turned upside down.

The terrain of Minzhou, consisting of eight parts mountains, one part water, and one part farmland, results in major rivers such as the Minjiang and Jiulongjiang having short, steep, and narrow channels, making them very prone to flooding.

In addition, frequent extreme weather events such as typhoons and torrential rains in summer lead to frequent flooding.

In order to deal with the floods, a large number of water management officials and laborers in Minzhou had to rush to various dikes and dangerous sections of the river to patrol and guard them day and night in order to prevent major disasters.

As the Director of Waterways, Wang Cheng was responsible not only for liaising with the General Who Guards the Sea and the General Who Dives into the Sea, but also for communicating with water spirits, dragons, and earth deities to bring wind, clouds, rain, and drought relief.

Governor You Zhende issued a special order requiring him to fight fires throughout the Minzhou region, and to be sent wherever flooding was severe or danger was imminent.

Everyone could see that the governor was just trying to make things difficult for him. Water and fire are merciless; if he were to be swept away by the flood, he wouldn't be able to blame anyone else.

Wang Cheng readily accepted the task with a smile.

Then, together with Sister Axiao, they transformed into dragons and climbed the clouds. The two dragons, one green and one white, used their innate skills to drive the thick water vapor in the sky back into the sea.

If they can't be driven away, they'll continue pushing them into the arid north.

In just a few days, countless lives were saved, and the entire Minzhou government was now aware of their existence.

"It's Lord Wang, the Water Official, and Lady Yan, the Dragon Girl! We're saved!"

"Thank you for your blessings, Lord Wang and his wife!"

Amidst the expressions of gratitude from all those in Minzhou, the ritual for the Dragon Girl's promotion to the fourth rank proceeded rapidly.

Click!

The two were on patrol again when a bolt of lightning, shaped like a tree branch, suddenly struck Wang Cheng.

The dragon pearl he was holding in his mouth was absorbed completely in an instant, yet he himself was unharmed.

A closer look reveals that the Dragon Ball contains two energies, Yin and Yang, black and white, rotating at high speed, crushing lightning to generate a continuous and surging power.

However, the long-awaited [Thunderfire Cardinal] was successfully completed.

The anode was the Blood Floating Pagoda, and the cathode wasn't just any ordinary evil spirit either. Instead, it received additional investment from Sister Axiao, who pulled out the Dragon Locking Well from her own Dragon Palace.

After being shrunk down, the two elements formed the yin and yang poles, and were then melted and cast into a huge, nested metal sphere using gold, silver, and bronze as raw materials. This sphere was then placed inside the beggar's version of the Mirage Cloud Dragon Ship.

Rotating at high speed without stopping, the Yin and Yang energies are like a millstone, absorbing various kinds of energy from the outside world, especially lightning, which is absorbed most efficiently, and then transforming it into surging kinetic energy and magical light.

Wang Cheng kept it by his side and constantly reflected on it, making rapid progress in his understanding of the dual cultivation of Yin and Yang and the nature of life.

He strongly suspected that the [Thunderfire Cardinal] was actually a high-level method of cultivating both body and mind.

If one can understand the principles behind it, in time one will surely be able to create one's own secret and orthodox teachings, just like Yu Long and Qi Hu.

"what?"

Immersed in the changes of Yin and Yang, Wang Cheng, with keen intuition, suddenly sensed a similar aura and parted the clouds to look at the ground.

(End of this chapter)