I stole divine power in Daxia

Chapter 469 Financial Issues
After roughly sorting out the Taoist path to becoming a saint, Zhou Tieyi had some more answers and new questions about the current status of the Lord of Daming Palace and the Emperor of Daxia. He put this matter aside for the time being and asked his mother another question.

"Mother, how much do you know about the art of war?"

Zhou's mother replied, "The art of formations is originally the domain of Taoist research. The art of military formations contains the art of the three elements on the basis of formations, and I know a thing or two about it."

Hearing Zhou's mother say that she knew a thing or two, Zhou Tieyi couldn't help but smile. This was the best answer.

Zhou's mother had an unprecedented talent in practicing Taoism, and the Zhou family was a family of generals. After marrying into the Zhou family, Zhou's mother stayed at home every day, studying various methods of practice. Naturally, she had studied and understood the military formations inherited by the Zhou family.

"I would like to ask my mother to use this as a foundation to evolve a sky-reaching military formation for me that can threaten the first rank."

When Zhou's mother heard Zhou Tieyi's words about threatening the first rank with military formations, she wanted to refute, because there were only a few formations in the world that could threaten the first rank. Even if she had a high talent for cultivation, she couldn't say that she could deduce it, at least before she truly entered the first rank.

But when Zhou's mother saw what Zhou Tieyi took out, she was stunned.

It was a full sun.

The sun's rays were confined in the room. Under the rays were countless human figures, and above the rays were the prayers of all gods.

"Tianyi Jade Disc?"

Mother Zhou asked in an uncertain tone.

She had personally handed the Tianyi Jade Disc to Zhou Tieyi, so she was naturally very familiar with it. When the Tianyi Jade Disc contained the fire of humanity and transformed into a peerless divine weapon, Zhou's mother also vaguely sensed it, but she did not practice Shinto after all, and her perception of this peerless divine weapon was limited to knowing that a peerless divine weapon symbolizing Shinto came into being, but she did not know what it was.

Now that Zhou Tieyi has taken out the Taiyi Jade Disc, Zhou's mother can naturally connect the cause and effect.

"Now it is called Taiyi Jade Disc."

As Zhou Tieyi answered, the spiritual light in the jade disc was cleared, and countless great rules centered on gods emerged out of thin air and appeared directly in front of Zhou's mother, making the yin and yang in this room change and the scene was magnificent.

Zhou's mother paused. Since Zhou Tieyi was in control of this peerless divine weapon, many things that happened before could be explained. Even if she tried to stop him from taking the path of becoming a god, he would eventually embark on this path.

However, at this point, Zhou's mother did not say much, but picked up the peerless artifact and placed it in her palm to comprehend. When the human fire that was like the corona of the sun was beating, Zhou's mother could not help but wonder, "The fire of the ancestor of the human race?"

Zhou Tieyi nodded. It was no wonder that Zhou's mother was surprised, because in this era, what has been promoted is the opposition between humanity and theology.

Zhou Tieyi answered some of his mother's questions based on his own experience, "Mother, in my eyes, Shinto is divided into innate Shinto and human Shinto."

“The Xiantian Shintoism originated from the era of the Nine Gods of the Ancient World. They were born in response to the will of heaven and controlled the life and death of all spirits. Among all spirits, the human race was the eldest and was unwilling to be enslaved by the Xiantian Gods. Therefore, they broke the Xiantian Shintoism and established their own power. However, even the Five Emperors who led the human race to establish their own power were actually influenced by the Shintoism tradition. Therefore, although the Nine Gods of the Ancient World were defeated, Shintoism developed latently within the human race until the ban set by the Confucian Sage was lifted. Shintoism began to prosper again. This is the Shintoism of the human race.”

"What the human race fears is the resurrection of the Nine Ancient Gods, which would cause the human race to lose its position as the leader of all spirits, so they banned the way of the gods. But in fact, as time goes by, most of the people who are now circulating in Daxia are people who have practiced to become gods. They are a tradition that can be accepted by the human race, just like Taoism and Buddhism."

Mother Zhou listened carefully to Zhou Tieyi's words, and then replied, "What you said is similar to what the Taoist Master Tianyi said back then."

"But he failed, and I will succeed."

Zhou Tieyi said confidently.

Mother Zhou sighed softly and looked back at the Taiyi Jade Disc. She pondered for a moment, "Although this jade disc contains the divine way of the human race, it is essentially not yet complete. It is now divided into two parts: 'Ten Thousand Gods' and 'Humanity'."

"There's nothing I can do about it. I haven't made the world truly accept the concept of the human race's Shintoism. I just came up with a prototype myself."

The Taiyi Jade Disc was never perfect. The birth of any peerless divine weapon symbolizes a great fortune of heaven and earth. The Taiyi Jade Disc symbolizes the complete fusion of the divine way and the human way. However, the current situation in Daxia is not enough for Zhou Tieyi to realize this great fortune, so the Taiyi Jade Disc is not perfect. The power it can exert at this time depends on inheriting the human fire of the Yanren clan. It still belongs to the top second grade and has some characteristics of the holy way, but its actual power has not reached the first grade.

"Then we should deduce two formations."

Mother Zhou did not aim too high. "I don't know much about the way of gods, so you can deduce the formation of 'Ten Thousand Gods'. I can help you deduce the part of humanity. By the way, where is your embryo of the peerless divine weapon?"

Zhou Tieyi took out five chess pieces of blue, red, white, black and yellow. Although these Five Emperors' Divine Generals were also embryos of peerless divine weapons and inherited the luck of the Five Emperors, the power they inherited was less than that of the Fire of Humanity. In addition, when they were born, Zhou's mother took the initiative to suppress this divine weapon and prevented it from interacting with the heaven and earth, so the power they can exert now is limited.

"You already use the Five Elements Formation as the foundation of the formation. I am thinking of adding the Five Emperors' Human Luck Changes to the Five Elements, and using the Five Emperors' Divine Minds as the foundation of the formation. When this formation is deduced to the final step, it should be able to suppress the First Rank."

Zhou Tieyi deduced in his mind that the Five Emperors of humanity plus the changes of the five elements symbolize the rise and fall of things. At the same time, using humanity to suppress most of the cultivation methods in the world, he can indeed suppress the first level.

After handing over the matter of deducing the formation to Zhou's mother, Zhou Tieyi got back to his busy official duties. The first thing he had to deal with was the invitation sent by the Ministry of Households. Even though it was late at night, the carriage was still waiting outside.

Zhou Tieyi picked up the invitation and took a look at it, then got on the Ministry of Revenue's carriage and went straight to the Ministry's yamen.

When they arrived at the government office, although the Minister of Revenue Shi Changsheng did not greet them at the door, he greeted them under the plaque "Peace and Prosperity" in front of the flower hall.

Zhou Tieyi smiled and joked, "Although I am fair and just to the people, ordinary officials also have days off. I only rested for a day and a night, but these urgent invitations keep coming one after another."

Shi Changsheng knew that Zhou Tieyi was disgusted with the fact that he had sent several invitations in a row. Although they were ostensibly "invitations", they were almost undoubtedly official letters.

"Lord Zhou, those who are capable should do more work."

Shi Changsheng first praised Zhou Tieyi, and then talked about the specific problem, "But you also know the current situation of the Ministry of Revenue. It is almost December, but the Ministry of Revenue is still short of 20 million taels. If you, Lord Zhou, don't take action, there may be a big mess at the end of this year..."

At this point, Shi Changsheng stroked the official seal on his body, and his righteous spirit sealed the entire flower hall. He said in a voice that only the two of them could hear, "What's more, the money and grain in the west must be prepared first!"

Zhou Tieyi turned his head and asked, "Is there any news yet?" This was something the court had anticipated before. Because of the Western Paradise and this year's severe drought, the remote provinces in the western part of Daxia would definitely be in chaos.

Shi Changsheng looked at the rare peonies in the flower hall that were covered with white snow but still in full bloom. These peonies were bestowed by the Queen Mother to various government offices. They were high-quality spiritual objects in themselves, so they could withstand the winter snow.

"The peonies are in full bloom at the gates of the rich, but who knows how cold it is at the frontiers? It's dry in the summer and cold in the winter, and there's no money or food to help. Refugees are inevitable. In the past, the world was peaceful, so we could wait for spring to come and help them slowly. But now the gods are rampant, and those with ulterior motives are stirring up trouble, forcing the court to resort to drastic measures."

Zhou Tieyi looked at the bright red peony flowers under the white snow and sighed softly, "Can I know the specific information?"

"This matter was supposed to be reported to Lord Zhou, but Lord Zhou was in seclusion yesterday and could not be summoned."

Shi Changsheng took out a secret letter with a wax seal from his Qiankun bag, and Zhou Tieyi unfolded it and read it.

Basically, the God-Slaying Department reported that a large number of refugees had gathered in the western border prefectures and counties, and many of them were sent there on their own initiative by the county government. There was also a saying among the refugees that the Western Pure Land of Buddhism had been descended and Maitreya Buddha was saving all living beings.

"What does your majesty mean?"

Shi Changsheng said, "Next year's drought is basically certain. Now the evil monks in the Western Paradise do not want to go to war with our Great Xia. They just need to wait for the weather to become more unfavorable so that they can gather more fools. The weather is not on our side, so we can't just sit back and watch them grow stronger. Therefore, this part of the military expenditure must be prepared to suppress the rebellion or provide relief to refugees."

Zhou Tieyi nodded. Even if the imperial court wanted to provide relief to the refugees now, it was actually too late. It would take time to transfer money and grain to the hands of the people, not to mention that there were evil Buddhist monks involved. So from Daxia's perspective, instead of providing relief to the refugees, it would be better to destroy them and then rebuild them.

"The initial military expenditure is eight million taels."

Zhou Tieyi gave a number.

"Eight million taels." Shi Changsheng raised his voice, "How is that enough?"

If it were just ordinary bandits, or even a third-grade god causing trouble, Daxia would not even need to mobilize the army, and could solve the problem by sending the God-Slaying Division with the third-grade practitioners.

However, it is said that there are at least twenty-four evil monks in the Western Paradise who are of the top three grades, and this was verified personally by the Lord of Daming Palace. Eight million taels are definitely not enough to fill them.

Zhou Tieyi sneered, "The situation has become so serious that it is difficult to reverse. Can Lord Shi still sweep the country? If Lord Shi is willing to lead the troops to sweep the country, even if it is 30 million taels, I can raise the amount for Lord Shi!"

The Emperor of Daxia actually knew about the matter of the Western Paradise in August, but why it was delayed until now is because there is no way to solve it in a short period of time.

Therefore, Zhou Tieyi had no hope of quickly resolving the issue of the Western Paradise. The eight million taels were issued in order to consolidate the garrison at the 'front line' in the west and at the same time to resolve the problem of refugees as much as possible so as to prevent the west from being completely destroyed.

Zhou Tieyi walked to a desk in the hall, took out a piece of paper and a pen, and began to plan, "Is the deficit of the Ministry of Revenue this year 20 million taels?"

Shi Changsheng knew that this matter concerned the imperial court, and he didn't care about Zhou Tieyi's previous words of bullying him. He said seriously, "After several calculations, the deficit is 18,720,000 taels."

Zhou Tieyi added the eight million taels, making a total of twenty-six million taels.

He scratched it and said, "Three million taels are paid from the God-Slaying Division account."

This part of the money was the result of the previous confiscation of the wealthy merchants in Tianjing and the implementation of Tianjing commercial taxes in the past few months. Originally there were nearly eight million taels, but when Zhou Tieyi and the Emperor of Daxia were on their honeymoon, they promised to build the spectacular Zixiao Taoist Palace for the Emperor of Daxia, and four million taels had already been allocated. Of the remaining four million taels, Zhou Tieyi wanted to keep one million taels for the Zhushen Division to continue the reform of the Zhushen Division, and he would also transfer another three million taels.

"These three million taels will not be directly transferred to the Ministry of Revenue, but will be used as funds for the God-Slaying Division to eliminate evil monks and temples in the western provinces."

Zhou Tieyi told the whereabouts of this part of the money. The God-Slaying Division originally had the function of suppressing Shintoism. Now the Buddhist rebellion in the western provinces happened to be being suppressed by the God-Slaying Division. They would first use a small force to prick the abscess.

Shi Changsheng opened his mouth. The money from the God-Slaying Division had originally been withheld by Zhou Tieyi in the Division. It had also been used as a small treasury for the Emperor of Great Xia to build the Zixiao Taoist Palace. Now the only person who could use it was Zhou Tieyi. It was reasonable to use it to quell the rebellion of Western Buddhism. He nodded slightly, took out a pen, and made a tick on it, representing the agreement of Confucianism and the Emperor.

Zhou Tieyi continued, "The noble families in Taihang Mountain also confiscated nearly five million taels of silver. This money was also transferred over. Three million taels were used for military expenses, and two million taels were used for the evacuation of refugees."

After the Zhushen Division had pierced the abscess, if they encountered a county government that they could not handle, they would need to send a large army to invade. This was the source of military expenditure. Even after the county government was handled, the refugees still needed to be resettled.

Shi Changsheng raised an objection, "The God-Slaying Department allocated three million taels, and the military expenditure was only three million taels. This is probably not appropriate."

Zhou Tieyi did not answer. There was a distinction between close and distant relatives. The reform of the Zhushen Division was beginning to show results, and there were a large number of his direct subordinates in the Division. Of course, it would be best if the money could be transferred to the Zhushen Division.

At the same time, strategically, this winter's war with Buddhism is mainly based on decapitation operations. The army is defending the main front and preventing the situation from deteriorating. The real decisive battle is far from this year.

Shi Changsheng did not put a check mark on it and waited to take it to the imperial study to discuss it.

"The salaries of the various government offices in Tianjing have not been paid yet, right?"

"It's natural."

Shi Changsheng said, "But it has been overdue for three months, a total of 10 million taels of silver."

Daxia was founded on military power, and keeping retainers was popular, so there was naturally no such thing as keeping officials with low salaries. Instead, officials were kept with high salaries. The 10 million taels were merely salaries, not counting various tax cuts, training materials, and filial respects from those below.

Zhou Tieyi's previous personal guards, even if they were eighth-rank warriors, only received ten taels of silver per month, while the salaries of officials in various departments in Tianjing were often hundreds of taels of silver. Therefore, he was able to support his retainers openly with silver.

Zhou Tieyi pointed his finger and said, "In the world of cultivation, since the cultivators are allowed to manage the country, it is not surprising that the management cost is extremely high. Fortunately, the cultivation materials are not affected by the drought, so I don't have to take care of them," Zhou Tieyi complained in his heart.

"This part of the silver will be distributed in the form of Central Bank silver notes."

(End of this chapter)