Red Mansion Taoist

Chapter 345 Prefect
The army led by Wu Zicang arrived at the port of Japan. The fleet consisted of five warships and hundreds of sea vessels.

In order to allow 50,000 troops to reach Japan, Li Qiang not only deployed five newly built steam warships, but also requisitioned the maritime trade fleet managed by Datong Money House, as well as all other sea vessels that could be requisitioned.

"Wu Hou is not kind enough. He didn't even leave me a sip of soup!" Wu Zicang said helplessly, shaking his head after landing.

The journey was so smooth that we didn't encounter any Japanese warships.

When we arrived at the port, we couldn't see a single living person, which shows how clean Wu Hou and his team had cleaned it.

"Wu Hou, you have to leave some Japanese for me, otherwise are you going to let the Daqian soldiers go mining?" Wu Zicang murmured after finding no living people.

After 50,000 Daqian soldiers got off the ship, they began to capture people in Japan in teams of 1,000 soldiers each.

Wu Zicang took 5,000 soldiers to occupy the silver mountains pointed out by Li Qiang, waiting for the various armies to send slaves to mine.

Of course, there are still large tracts of farmland in Japan that are not cultivated, but these are not Wu Zicang's tasks. The food and necessities for his army and the slaves sent later are all provided by the fleet.

Anyway, there is no need to worry about losing money. With so many silver mountains, all the expenses of this war can be recovered, and there will be enough profits.

Kyoto was destroyed, and Wu Hou took the Tianlong airship and 500 artillery troops to continue to clean up the remaining Japanese forces.

After the death of the Japanese emperor, the entire Japanese nation was like having its backbone removed, and no city dared to resist anymore.

Even the remaining two armies of Japan surrendered to Wu Hou.

Wu Hou did not expect this. At this time, he also received a message from Wu Zicang, saying that Wu Zicang had landed on Japanese soil.

Considering the slaves who would be used for mining, Wu Hou drove a large number of Japanese people towards the silver mountain.

Countless Japanese followed a Tianlong airship in the sky and headed towards the unknown, and no one dared to resist.

They had no way to resist. The terrifying monster in the sky only needed to drop a incendiary bomb to burn a large number of Japanese to death.

Having lost their emperor and faced with an invincible powerful force, the Japanese had no choice but to surrender.

Wu Zicang was very worried because the army he sent out brought back too few slaves.

The army only found scattered Japanese outside the city, and there were no living people in the city.

He thought of Li Qiang's order and wondered how to mine the mine without manpower.

Just at this time, a scout came to report that the vanguard army had brought a large number of Japanese.

He was overjoyed and rushed to check.

In the first few days, Wu Zicang was excited because he had enough slaves to mine.

But as more and more Japanese came, his troubles began to arise again.

The number of slaves was simply too large, so he could only choose the strong slaves to work in the mines, and the rest of the slaves were fed one meal a day to prevent them from starving to death.

As for what to do next, we have to wait for Li Qiang to issue new orders.

Daqian's army continued to be dispatched, this time to collect valuable items from various places.

Since each army is commanded by a 100% loyal general, there is no need to worry about the treasures being embezzled by the soldiers.

These soldiers still have to take a ship back to Daqian, so they can't hide anything.

In the Daming Palace, Li Qiang was looking at the battle report. He was very satisfied with this attack on Japan.

Through actual combat, it can be verified that the weapons possessed by the Daqian army are powerful enough to crush nearby countries.

"It seems that we still need to send a civil servant to Japan to build up the people's livelihood over there. We can't have all of it transported over by Daqian!" Li Qiang thought to himself as he put down the battle report.

Wu Zicang and Wu Hou are both military officers. There is no problem asking them to fight in wars, but they are definitely the wrong people to manage local production and develop production.

Who to send is a problem. There are many capable officials, but I am afraid that few civil servants are willing to go to such places.

"Jin Dong, issue an edict to Jia Yucun, the prefect of Yingtian Prefecture in Jinling, and ask him to come to Beijing to meet the emperor!" Li Qiang thought for a moment and gave the order.

The person he was looking for was Jia Yucun, and he had Jia Yucun's pigtail in his hand.

Because of the case that Jia Yucun helped Xue Pan handle, which involved favoritism and injustice, Xue Pan had to stay at the border for a few years.

As for Jia Yucun, no one touched him.

Naturally, Jia Yucun lost the help of the Jia family and no longer had his new backer Wang Ziteng. After so many years, he was still stuck in his position as the prefect of Yingtian Prefecture in Jinling.

Li Qiang also thought about the friendship between him and Jia Yucun in the past, so he did not take action against him, but this did not mean that he would let Jia Yucun remain like this.

There are no secrets in the capital. Jia Yucun was recalled to the capital, and the position of Jinling Prefecture Governor was vacant.

Some officials began to make efforts to get the vacant position.

But no matter how hard these officials tried to find people, it was of no use. The first number one scholar after Li Qiang took power was transferred from the capital to the prefect of Nanjing. Lin Ruhai helped to do it without Li Qiang giving any instructions.

The steamships that ran on the Grand Canal enabled Jia Yucun to reach the capital in just seven days.

He did not dare to rest and immediately went to the palace to meet the emperor.

In the main hall of the Daming Palace, Li Qiang met with Jia Yucun.

Jia Yucun lowered his head and walked into the hall with small steps. He saw Li Qiang's position out of the corner of his eye, walked over, knelt down, saluted and shouted "Long live the emperor".

This attitude was so humble and sincere that if Jia Yucun was not afraid of going too far, he would have wanted to break his forehead.

"Stand up and take a seat!" Li Qiang said calmly.

Jia Yucun stood up carefully and gave a grateful smile to the eunuch who brought him a stool.

He had inquired about it and found out that Emperor Li Qiang did not care how many eunuchs he had around him, and there were only four eunuchs who could get close to Li Qiang.

It was not until he sat sideways on the stool that he could really see Li Qiang's face.

Looking at the familiar face, Jia Yucun couldn't help but think of the days in Yangzhou.

Although Jia Yucun and Li Qiang got along well when they were in Yangzhou, even his wife Jiao Xing was the middleman appointed by Li Qiang.

If he could rely on this relationship, after Li Qiang became the crown prince, a specialist like him should have contacted Li Qiang early in the hope of being noticed by Li Qiang.

But who told him to do the wrong thing in Xue Pan's case in order to curry favor with the Wang family?

When Xue Pan was arrested and exiled, Jia Yucun was uneasy for a long time after hearing the news, fearing that he would be affected by the case.

He didn't dare to contact Li Qiang on his own initiative, and even thought about making Li Qiang forget about him.

"The wrong things you did in Jinling have been suppressed by me!" Li Qiang's words almost scared Jia Yucun to death.

"I deserve to die!" Jia Yucun was very sensible. Without any explanation, he knelt down on the ground again.

"Stand up and sit down. If I wanted you to die, you would have been beheaded long ago!" Li Qiang said, waving his hand.

Jia Yucun stood up trembling, and this time he sat on even less of the stool. He didn't understand Li Qiang's thoughts, and even felt that serving the emperor was like serving a tiger.

It seems unlikely that he could be forgiven of his sins given the relationship between him and Li Qiang.

Xue Pan had a very good relationship with Li Qiang at the beginning. Even the concubine Yun Fei who was by Li Qiang's side was given by Xue Pan. But Xue Pan was still exiled to the border.

"I have a trouble and need someone to share my burden!" Li Qiang said calmly.

"I am willing to die for Your Majesty!" Jia Yucun responded immediately.

He knew he had no confidence to refuse, so he had to agree to it no matter what it was.

I didn’t see Li Qiang calling him from Jinling, I’m afraid it was just for this matter.

He even suspected that Li Qiang had not punished him just to let him do this.

"A few days ago, my private artillery army destroyed Japan. There are 50,000 Daqian troops stationed there, and nearly one million slaves. We need a civil servant to go there!" Li Qiang said with a smile.

When Jia Yucun heard that Japan was destroyed, he was extremely shocked.

He is the prefect of Jinling Prefecture. Although he is not in the capital, with his rank, he can still know some important information.

But before this, he had never heard that Daqian sent troops to Japan, let alone destroyed Japan.

Any emperor who has the achievement of destroying a country during his reign will have his record recorded in history and passed down through the ages.

In addition to being shocked, he realized that Li Qiang wanted him to go to Japan.

"I will definitely civilize Japan!" Unable to refuse, he could only take the initiative to agree.

"You are wrong. Your mission is not to educate them. All the Japanese are just slaves. You can promote a small number of Japanese, but they must be slaves. This cannot be changed. In addition to growing food, your mission is to limit the Japanese population. No matter what means you use, the total number of Japanese cannot exceed 500,000, and it can be less!" Li Qiang said coldly.

Jia Yucun's hair stood on end, because Li Qiang's order sentenced the Japanese to death.

There are still nearly one million Japanese today, but the number given by Li Qiang is 500,000, which means that 500,000 Japanese will die during his tenure.

Even though Jia Yucun was a cruel and ruthless person, he was still frightened at this moment.

"Are there any difficulties?" Li Qiang asked in a deep voice.

"I have no difficulties, but I need the cooperation of the Daqian army!" Jia Yucun said with a bow.

"There will be a thousand cavalrymen over there to protect you and obey your orders!" Li Qiang said with a smile.

Jia Yucun finally breathed a sigh of relief. He didn't care how many Japanese died. After all, in the eyes of literati, those who are not of our race must have different hearts.

He was relieved that the security of Japan was guaranteed. With a thousand cavalry households and the combat effectiveness of the Daqian army, the Japanese would have no chance of resisting.

In fact, once he had come into contact with the Japanese, he knew how humble they would be after he defeated them.

"After Japan is destroyed, I will name it Penglai, and you will be the first prefect of Penglai!" Li Qiang said after thinking for a while.

He gestured to Jin Dong, who immediately stepped aside to draft the imperial edict.

This imperial edict needs to be reported to the cabinet and notified to the six ministries and other government offices. Penglai cannot have only one prefect, and the rest of the officials also need to be gradually recruited.

After Jia Yucun left the palace, he was demoted by more than one level from the prefect of Jinling to the governor of Penglai. Both his rank and power dropped.

But he felt a lot more relieved in his heart. At least he had ended his tenure in Penglai, and everything in the past was over and would not affect him anymore.

An imperial edict was sent to the cabinet, and Grand Secretary Tian and Lin Ruhai paid close attention to it.

Since Li Qiang proclaimed himself emperor, most government affairs were handled by the cabinet, and the number of imperial edicts sent from the Daming Palace to the cabinet became less and less.

Scholar Tian opened the imperial edict. When he saw the contents, he was stunned. He didn't know what his mood was at the moment, perhaps happy or sad.

Lin Ruhai was very curious and looked at it carefully.

"Japan has been destroyed!" Lin Ruhai exclaimed.

Even though he knew Li Qiang's plan and knew that Li Qiang had sent elite troops to Japan, he did not expect that the war would end so quickly.

This is a war of annihilation, and every war of annihilation will be very difficult, because the enemies in the war of annihilation will be extremely tenacious, and even after victory, it will take a lot of time to deal with the constant resistance.

"The emperor has named it Penglai and sent Jia Yucun there to serve as the prefect. It seems that it has become a part of Daqian!" said Tian Daxueshi, shaking his head.

"Haha, there will be no more Japanese pirates in the future, and Daqian will gain more territory!" Lin Ruhai was in a good mood and he laughed.

When the cabinet scholars heard the news, they all became excited.

Regardless of one's stance, the increase in Daqian's territory is a good thing.

"This time it's not the Penglai taken by Daqian, but the Penglai taken by Datong Bank!" reminded Tian Daxueshi.

Although everyone knows that Datong Money House belongs to Li Qiang, and even the dispatch of troops was Li Qiang's order, all military expenses were provided by Datong Money House, and there is no doubt about that.

As the chief steward of Daqian, Academician Tian was very clear about this.

He had not spent a single ounce of silver on this war to annihilate the country. Without participation, given Li Qiang's temper, he would gain nothing.

The entire Penglai’s wealth and land will belong to Li Qiang alone.

Although Li Qiang is the emperor and the world belongs to him, officials do not want to see all the wealth concentrated in the emperor's hands.

"Master Tian, ​​you are obsessed!" Lin Ruhai said with a smile. He continued, "Whether it is Datong Bank or the government, they are all members of Daqian. Whoever conquers Penglai is the Penglai conquered by Daqian!"

Scholar Tian was speechless for a moment. He had indeed said the wrong thing.

It was at this time that the eunuch from the Daming Palace brought another note.

Lin Ruhai took the note, read the contents, and couldn't stop smiling.

He handed the note to Academician Tian and asked him to take a look at it.

Scholar Tian saw the contents of the note, which asked the cabinet to send letters to envoys from various countries through the Ministry of Rites.

The content of the letter condemned Japan for disrupting Daqian's normal trade and detaining Daqian officials. Daqian had no choice but to send a team of elite soldiers to rescue Daqian officials.

While rescuing the officials, they accidentally destroyed Japan.

The purpose of this letter was to inform all countries that Daqian did not initiate the war, but it was Japan that first destroyed the relationship between the two sides, and Daqian was responding in a legitimate way.

"After this, I'm afraid that Daqian's trade will not encounter any obstacles in any country!" Lin Ruhai said with a big laugh.

However, Academician Tian sensed a strong sense of roguery in the note.

But it seems that this kind of rogue behavior is very comfortable. Anyway, it’s okay as long as we are the rogues, but other countries cannot be rogues!

(End of this chapter)