I stole divine power in Daxia

Chapter 564 Li Jing's Actions

Tianjing Liuhe Town, Ship Investment Factory.

This place was originally a military workshop of the Shentu family. At that time, the fourth prince Li Jing wanted to open a shipyard. Zhou Tieyi could not hold too many shares, but he was also unwilling to let the shipyard completely out of his control, so he mediated and allowed the Shentu family to participate in this matter, changing the Feixiong Military Workshop into the current Ship Investment Factory.

Although there has been no news from the Shipbuilding Investment Factory in the past few months, Li Jing's development speed has not been slow at all.

The dock runs along Liuhe River to Luoshui River. Several dozen feet high new steel-making chimneys continuously spew out mist. A large number of people in Liuhe Town have left farming and started working. Although they are not as powerful as the Railway Chamber of Commerce and are constantly recruiting people, their size is closely behind.

When Li Jing opened the ship investment factory, he had already attracted a lot of investment from royal relatives. Later, the ship investment factory was also listed. He had no shortage of funds, technology, and connections, so his development was naturally rapid.

However, even though the development was so fast, Li Jing remained committed to his duties. In the past few months, he did not even leave Liuhe Town, as if he wanted to turn this place into his own fiefdom.

In the factory office, there is also a new Zhougong building made of cement and steel. Li Jing devoted himself to the factory and almost ate and slept with the workers. Of course, he was not completely ignorant of the news about Tianjing, but even if he knew, he just wanted to stay away. He even hoped that the people in Tianjing would forget about him and let him develop here for a few years. At least he should use the Steamship Merchants Factory as his foundation and take control of Daxia's water transport. Only then would he be qualified to participate in the government.

But when people try to avoid things, things will come to them.

It was already dark at this time, and Li Jing looked at the uninvited guest in front of her.

"Mr. Qi came to me personally. It seems that he wants to form an alliance with me."

There are many royal heirs now, but there are actually only three who are capable of competing for the throne, namely Crown Prince Li Can, Fourth Prince Li Jing and Seventh Prince Li Hao.

Therefore, Li Jing knew the counselors under his two brothers very well. Qi Xuanyi was Li Hao's confidant. His appearance here at this time must have brought the most important mission.

Qi Xuanyi smiled and said, "Your Highness the Fourth Prince has been lurking in the red-light district, but he will take off one day. I see that Liuhe Town is backed by Yujing and faces Luoshui, and it looks like a fish leaping over the dragon gate."

After the compliment, Qi Xuanyi presented the letter with Li Hao's seal in his sleeve, "However, the Dragon Gate is tightly closed at this time, even a real fish dragon would find it difficult to cross. I came here this time because the Lord is worried about my brother, so I came to open the Dragon Gate for the Fourth Prince."

Li Jing took the letter and cut it open with a knife while smiling, "Seventh brother, are you so kind?"

Qi Xuanyi smiled but said nothing. Li Jing read the entire letter, pressed it under her hand, raised her head again, and looked at Qi Xuanyi. "Rather than saying that it is for me to open the Dragon Gate, the conditions in this letter are to fulfill my seventh brother in the end. Why should I take risks for you and persuade my sworn brother to compromise on this matter?"

Qi Xuanyi restrained his smile and straightened his expression. To form alliances, one must not only distinguish between benefits and opportunities, but also the ability of a lobbyist to speak well is also very important.

"May I ask, Your Highness, what are you arguing about with the Lord?"

Li Jing remained silent. He and Li Haoyuan had no grudges or hatred in the past or present. All they were fighting for was the supreme position on Yujing Mountain.

Qi Xuanyi continued, "To be very disrespectful, in the past, the emperor would not live more than thirty years after ascending the throne, and the supreme position would be just around the corner. But now, Your Majesty wants to achieve the path of sainthood. If he succeeds, he will enjoy the throne for thousands of generations. You, the Lord, and even His Royal Highness the Crown Prince have nothing to compete with."

"If it doesn't work, and the Duke of Zhou ascends the throne, if the country changes its name, there will be no dispute between you and the Lord."

"Since there is no substantive conflict between you and the Lord over success or failure, how can you say that you are trying to take advantage of the situation? In my opinion, you should be brothers and work together to deal with the most dangerous situation and continue the Li family's national prosperity."

Li Jing was no longer silent and smiled, "What a eloquent mouth you have. My seventh brother is like a tiger with wings when he has your help."

Although Li Jing said this with a smile, his murderous intent towards Qi Xuanyi grew stronger. He looked at the letter in front of him again. Li Hao's biological mother was from the Left General's Mansion, so Li Hao himself was more interested in martial arts rather than literary achievements. Qi Xuanyi just filled this shortcoming.

However, the more murderous intent she had, the more Li Jing had to admit that Qi Xuanyi's timing was very good and his words were very favorable.

Although it can be inferred that this time, what he gained from the alliance was far less than Li Hao, it was also of vital importance to him, that is, he would no longer be confined to Liuhe Town. This alone was enough for him to worry about.

Li Jing reached out and tapped the letter, not continuing to embarrass Qi Xuanyi, "Go back and tell Seventh Brother that I agree."

Qi Xuanyi saluted Li Jing again, and his body turned into crisscross lines and disappeared.

After making sure Qi Xuanyi had left, Li Jing put away the letter on the table and called the servants, "Prepare the car and go to the God Execution Division."

When Li Jing's carriage drove into the Xuanwu City God-Slaying Division, it was already completely dark.

Li Jing entered the parade ground wearing a dark blue brocade robe with a four-clawed dragon pattern. At this time, the parade ground was still guarded by the Tianjing guards. The storytellers were tied in the middle and stood for half a day. The ones who shouted the loudest had their mouths gagged with sackcloth.

Li Jing spotted Hu Wenlang in the middle of the parade ground. He told the Tianjing guards on duty, "Go and untie Editor Hu's rope."

The Tianjing guard did not dare to act rashly.

The situation in Tianjing has changed very quickly in the past half day. The people at the top have already made some alliances and exchanged interests, but the people at the lower levels are slower in getting the news.

In the eyes of the Tianjing guards on duty, Gao Wencan had just captured these storytellers to establish his authority and had not yet dealt with them. Now suddenly the fourth prince of the Zhou party, Li Jing, came and asked them to release them. Of course, they did not dare to act rashly.

Seeing that the other party did not move, Li Jing sneered. Although his reputation had improved, the name of "King Anle" was still too widespread and he had not established prestige among the people.

He sneered, and the guards following him naturally knew what to do. The chief guard stepped forward and kicked the Tianjing guard officer.

The guard officer was about to gather his energy to fight back, but the next moment he felt like a puppet, unable to move. It was not until Li Jing's chief guard kicked him several feet away and he vomited blood that he was able to let out a wailing sound.

The sudden change here naturally made the surrounding Tianjing guards change color. The deputy wanted to form a military formation and try to fight back, but Shentu Yuan, who had been watching the show on the side, would not sit idly by.

"Who dares to move!" He directly drew out the long sword from his waist. As soon as he made a move, the small flags and strong men under his command stopped watching the show and also drew out the long swords from their waists. At once, the blood and qi condensed from the outer periphery directly dispersed the blood and qi condensed by the Tianjing guards, blocking the formation they wanted to form.

The God-Slaying Division was not originally the headquarters of the Tianjing Guards. They only dared to show off their power here because of Gao Wencan's status as the director of the Inspection Institute. Now Shen Tu Yuan directly drew his sword. They were originally at a disadvantage in terms of numbers, and Gao Wencan was not here, so they naturally seemed to be leaderless.

Just as the situation became tense, a low shout came from the main hall, "Stop it!"

Commander Wei Shaoan shot towards the training ground like a blood-red arrow. His mighty energy gathered like clouds and rain. With the strength of a third-grade military practitioner, he forcibly suppressed the hundreds of people present. Then he glared at Shen Tu Yuan, "What do you want to do? Are you going to kill Tianjing Guards in the God-Slaying Division? Put away your knife!"

Although Shentu Yuan was subdued by Wei Shaoan's Qi and blood pressure, he was not afraid at all and had no intention of putting away his knife.

He is not smart, but he knows who is smart.

He watched in the training ground of the God-Slaying Division the entire afternoon. Although he did not make any move, he was also there to prevent any sudden action by the Tianjing Guards. He did not care if someone used a linen cloth soaked in horse urine to gag someone, as such things were more insulting than practical. However, if someone tried to force him to write a confession and sign his name, he would definitely stop it.

Fortunately, Gao Wencan didn't come back the whole afternoon, and there was no small movement here.

Now the fourth prince Li Jing suddenly appeared. As soon as he appeared, he changed his usual cautious attitude and looked like he was ready to fight.

If the sky falls, there are tall people to hold it up. Since Li Jing dares to do this, he must have some support. Shen Tu Yuan will naturally cooperate.

As expected, Li Jing sneered, "The commander of the guards has great authority."

"Your Highness, Fourth Prince."

Wei Shaoan turned around and saluted Li Jing. He was also in a state of panic now. Although he was a commander who was sidelined, his sources of information were still far more than those Tianjing guards on duty.

A series of changes this afternoon have shown that Zhou Tieyi has begun to fight back, and judging from the current situation, the Queen Mother, the Crown Prince, and the Seventh Prince's people have only temporarily stabilized the situation. I heard that the reorganization of the Railway Chamber of Commerce will be discussed at the court meeting tomorrow. This is another new round of political struggle and power division.

But Wei Shaoan has more things to do. News has come from Taihang Mountain that a thousand miles of rosy clouds appeared on Baizhi Mountain this morning. In the rosy clouds, there was a towering divine palace where all the gods gathered.

An "unknown" divine palace suddenly appeared in the world. This was originally a very important event for the God-Slaying Division, but the top three-grade practitioners knew whose territory Baizhi Mountain belonged to and whose power this suddenly appeared divine palace belonged to.

However, knowing it is one thing, but how to deal with it is another problem. Before Wei Shaoan could come up with a countermeasure, news came from the Taihang Mountain Pacification Office that all the surrounding pacification envoys had been "invited" and their whereabouts were unknown. This made Wei Shaoan think that Zhou Tieyi really wanted to use Taihang Mountain as the boundary and govern Daxia separately from the mountain.

So throughout the afternoon, he was not only paying attention to the situation in Tianjing, but also keeping in close contact with the Pacification Offices of several states outside the Taihang Mountains, asking them to closely count the personnel in the office, especially the core members who had participated in the selection system, and to be ready to go out at any time to prevent the situation from suddenly deteriorating and he, the Pacification Envoy, from being able to play any role.

In fact, if the situation were the same as before, he should now ask the emperor for instructions and rush to the front line to take charge.

But the current situation is turbulent and ever-changing. As a third-rank official, he may not be able to play a real role if he goes to the front-line Pacification Office where a gap has been opened. It is better for him to stay in the headquarters of the God-Slaying Office.

Before he could figure out what to do, Li Jing suddenly broke into the God-Slaying Division. Wei Shaoan couldn't help but start blaming Gao Wencan, "You've caused such a big change in the political situation, but now you can't even find the person, and you want others to suffer."

Li Jing smiled wryly, "You still know that I am the Fourth Prince. I thought everyone in Tianjing thought I was still the idle Prince Anle!"

Wei Shaoan was uneasy, just like Shentu Yuan. He knew Li Jing's character. Such a patient person suddenly came here with such fanfare. He must have some support. However, contrary to Shentu Yuan's happiness, Wei Shaoan became more and more uneasy.

Li Jing ignored Wei Shaoan. In Li Jing's opinion, even if Wei Shaoan was a third-rank official, he failed to manage the God-Slaying Division well before and he couldn't manage the God-Slaying Division well now. He was nothing but a dead bone in a tomb, a waste, not worth worrying about.

Instead...

He personally walked over to Hu Wenlang and untied him. "Gao Wencan, that cruel official, arrested an official of the imperial court for no reason. I will report him at the court meeting tomorrow!"

The reason why he came here in a hurry was to recruit Hu Wenlang.

Now that he was about to take the crucial step to succeed, Li Jing naturally knew what he lacked. What he lacked most was a strategist like Qi Xuanyi.

In the past, when he was in the red-light district, he kept a low profile, had no reputation, and looked down on ordinary advisers. In the following months, while dealing with the shipyard, he continued to keep a low profile, while also recruiting talented generals and advisers.

Hu Wenlang was naturally included in his list.

Hu Wenlang's position in Zhou's party is very inconspicuous, giving people a sense of being close yet distant. If you say he is on the margins, the power of the Tianjing Daily is extraordinary, and Hu Wenlang has always held the position of editor-in-chief. But if you say he is the core, it seems that he is not as clear-cut as Hao Ren, or even as clear-cut as Shentu Yuan.

After observing for several months and combining Hu Wenlang's background, Li Jing made a bold judgment, that is, Hu Wenlang was the counselor that Zhou Tieyi prepared for Zhou Tiege, but he was just keeping him by his side to train.

But what is strange is that Zhou Tiege has now been transferred away from Tianjing to serve as a general under the main account of Daming Palace to quell the rebellion of Western Buddhism, but Hu Wenlang still remains in Tianjing and did not follow Zhou Tiege to avoid the huge vortex of Tianjing.

In the eyes of ordinary people, this must be because Hu Wenlang was greedy for the power of Tianjing, but Li Jing instinctively felt that there was another mystery. Although he did not know what the mystery was for the time being, this was his chance.

Since Zhou Tieyi wants to train Hu Wenlang to be Zhou Tiege's adviser, it means Hu Wenlang's ability must be outstanding. He may only be able to perform half of that now, or even less. He is a person who bides his time, which just suits Li Jing's taste.

In addition, Hu Wenlang is also in contact with Zhou Tiege, which is also very important to Li Jing. Li Jing doesn’t know whether Zhou Tieyi wants to establish a new dynasty, but he knows that Zhou Tiege can influence Zhou Tieyi’s judgment.

In addition, Zhou Tiege is a fierce general. If he can convince Zhou Tiege to support him through Hu Wenlang, then all his shortcomings can be made up at once. This is the purpose of his coming here tonight.

(End of this chapter)