Longzang

Chapter 1118 The Magnificent Era
If Wei Yuan could believe 70% of what the Prince of Jin said, then he could only believe 20% of what the woman with blue eyes said.

Even now, Wei Yuan does not feel that he has any fundamental conflict with the Great Treasure Flower Pure Land. King Buddha is also a branch of the Great Treasure Flower Pure Land, and his golden body remains in the Pure Land.

Wei Yuan remembered seeing memories of Qing Tong in the sword realm left by Xu Shiqi. Those memories were definitely not righteous, so Wei Yuan kept his reservations about all of Qing Tong's promises.

Therefore, in the face of Qing Tong's overtures, Wei Yuan cautiously kept his distance. Instead of returning to the post station, he found a secluded and deserted place outside the capital and stood in quiet meditation. Before he knew it, dawn had broken.

Wei Yuan returned to the palace. As he entered the palace gate, his waist token flashed automatically, and all the guards and officials immediately knew that the King of Wei had arrived. Although Wei Yuan had no entourage or carriages, Gao Xiu had always disregarded worldly etiquette and appeared and disappeared unpredictably.

Upon entering the palace, all the officials along the way turned their heads in surprise, none of them expecting the King of Wei to appear so suddenly. But the King of Wei had not appeared for ten years, and his reappearance must signify something important. Therefore, all the officials were cautious in their words and actions, not daring to raise their voices, for fear of attracting the King of Wei's attention.

Although getting into the sights of those in power is the top priority in officialdom, most officials in the court have already climbed to the top, and at this point, maintaining stability becomes the primary concern. No one understands the temperament of the King of Wei, and no one knows whether rashly making a move would be good or bad.

Once all the officials had arrived and the Prince of Jin had taken his seat, and after the officials had paid their respects, Liu Quangong announced in his unique, mellow, penetrating, and metallic voice, "The Prince of Wei has arrived!"

Wei Yuan entered the court with composure and bowed deeply to the Prince of Jin under the watchful eyes of all the officials. Then Liu Quangong brought over a chair and placed it to the side of the Prince of Jin, where Wei Yuan sat down calmly.

The officials knew that Wei Yuan wielded immense power, but they hadn't expected it to reach this level. Some of the youngest officials were eager to try their luck, but were pulled back by their colleagues and shook their heads discreetly.

With a single glance, Wei Yuan could see the expressions of all the officials in the court, and many were even secretly observing the Prince of Jin. The Prince of Jin's sudden rejuvenation was undoubtedly the work of the Prince of Wei.

Wei Yuan no longer recognized any of the civil and military officials in the court. Only Chen Dao was a familiar face, but Chen Dao stood at the end of the civil official ranks, holding the rank of third grade, and had been stagnant for many years.

Chen Dao was indeed exceptionally capable, but everyone knew that he had once been an enemy of the King of Wei, so no one dared to give him important responsibilities or promote him. They simply placed him in the court to listen to his advice.

Among the officials were more than a dozen of Wei Yuan's adopted sons and great-grandsons, but Wei Yuan was never aware of them.

Once the court was quiet, the Prince of Jin said, "...Except for the northern frontier, all military and important affairs shall be under the overall command of the Prince of Wei..."

Upon receiving this decree, the officials' expressions changed. This was no longer a matter of being second only to the emperor; it had practically stripped the Prince of Jin of his power and turned him into a puppet.

Wei Yuan was also greatly surprised. He had originally intended to gain administrative and commercial power, but he never expected that the Prince of Jin and others would hand over such a vast area to him. Such boldness was truly rare.

Wei Yuan, blessed with immense fortune and possessing both the Pure Land and Yellow Springs grotto-heavens, had exceptionally sharp intuition. At this moment, he suddenly felt a faint pressure as a gaze descended from above, swept over him, and then withdrew.

Wei Yuan was already used to these gazes from above; he was looked at dozens of times a day. Anyway, no matter who came to see him now, Wei Yuan would just show them the fortunes of a hundred million people.

As for what else might happen under the influence of 100 million people, you can guess.

The imperial edict was issued, and Wei Yuan received it. Then the court session ended, and this morning's court session was to discuss only this one matter.

Amidst the bustling world, a detailed map of the Western Jin Dynasty exists. Wei Yuan holds immense power, and the nineteen prefectures are now marked with the azure color representing the heavens. Six prefectures in the south are under Wei Yuan's control, and now there are nineteen more in the central region. However, this azure area actually only occupies a small portion of the entire Western Jin Dynasty.

In terms of territory, apart from a few unproductive prefectures in the north, the combined area controlled by the Lü and Xu aristocratic families accounted for one-third of the Western Jin Dynasty, and all of it was fertile land. Furthermore, because the core areas of these families were free from war and the imperial taxes were extremely low, large numbers of people sought every means to migrate and settle there. The prefectures where the ancestral homes of the two aristocratic families were located each had a population exceeding one hundred million.

Of the more than 3 billion ordinary people in the Western Jin Dynasty, more than 2 billion lived in the areas controlled by the Lü and Xu families.

A mere drop of something from a celestial being's hand could feed billions of mortals.

Returning to Qingming, Wei Yuan flew directly to the Immortal City. In one corner of the Immortal City, a brand new palace had been built, ten zhang high and thirty zhang in circumference, with the four large characters "Ten Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains" inscribed on it.

The main hall contained only a huge sand table in the center, which at this time represented the entire territory of the Western Jin Dynasty and its surrounding areas. This sand table not only depicted the terrain in a lifelike manner, with each village clearly visible, but also displayed the weather conditions in real time.

Wei Yuan stood in the air, looking down at the Western Jin land. His divine sense was running at high speed, and more and more light spheres floated around him, eventually exceeding ten thousand before stopping.

Wei Yuan stood motionless, the light sphere flickering, and most of the computing power of the prosperous world was mobilized here. In the blink of an eye, seven days had passed.

Seven days later, the number of light orbs finally began to decrease, and most tasks were nearing completion. After countless deductions and tests, Wei Yuan finally had a complete plan for governing the entire Western Jin Dynasty. Most of central Jin was relatively stable; many people felt content with their current situation and considered it a peaceful and prosperous life. Wei Yuan planned to leave these people alone for the time being. Then, he would gradually relocate those who were displaced or dissatisfied with their current situation to the south.

Meanwhile, the boundary stones of the five southern prefectures have been rearranged for several years, the earth's veins have gradually solidified and formed, and the soil's strength has been increasing day by day. There is also Wei Yuan's southern military camp here, which is garrisoned with tens of thousands of troops on a daily basis. Therefore, there is no war, and banditry has disappeared.

Now that Yizhou has been initially developed, Wei Yuan plans to send the True Lord of Hoeing the Rice Seeds and the new and old disciples of the Taichu Palace to the five southern prefectures of the Western Jin Dynasty to carry out large-scale land reclamation and construction.

Farmland reclamation is a massive undertaking, requiring the construction of irrigation systems. Simultaneously, Wei Yuan plans to build multiple roads across the five southern prefectures. These projects alone will consume several years, a vast labor force, and astronomical amounts of resources. Once completed, the situation in the five southern prefectures will be completely transformed, and they will also be able to absorb a significant portion of Qingming's production capacity.

During the transformation of the five southern prefectures, a large number of displaced people would naturally be absorbed. A large number of people from the central region, dissatisfied with their current situation, would also migrate south. Once the transformation of the five southern prefectures was completed, the transformation of more than ten prefectures in the central region would then take place, ultimately transforming the core of the Western Jin dynasty and drawing a large number of people back from the Xu and Lü families.

At the same time, Wei Yuan also planned to rebuild Hanyang Pass, expand the area of ​​the pass several times, and station heavy troops there to completely keep the Xu family out of Qingming.

With the plan finalized, Wei Yuan entrusted it to Zhujie Fanhua for refinement. Meanwhile, over ten thousand exploration personnel had already assembled, more than half of whom were tasked with creating model foundations. This group would travel to the five southern prefectures of Western Jin to conduct thorough geological exploration and fully uncover the resource potential of the five prefectures.

With a massive amount of template foundations deployed, the exploration proceeded exceptionally smoothly. A month later, Wei Yuan dispatched a second advance engineering team totaling over 30,000 people. Their task was to delineate farmland boundaries, mining areas, and various strategic locations and spiritual resource production sites based on the results of the previous nationwide exploration.

Three months later, the True Lord of the Hoeing Fields concluded that the five southern prefectures could support 300 million people, and that this number could reach 1.5 billion in ten years, while the five prefectures currently only have 60 million people.

Wei Yuan directly approved the plan, and so in the winter of the fifteenth year of Hongjing, a total of 1.1 million construction craftsmen set off from Qingming and headed to various parts of the south, ushering in the most magnificent era in the history of the Western Jin Dynasty.

Subsequently, Wei Yuan deployed 100,000 troops to Hanyang Pass, putting the Xu family in a position of imminent attack.

At the Xu family's ancestral home, Xu Lanshan sat at the head of the council of elders, holding the quarterly routine meeting with the other elders.

Not long after the meeting began, an elder stood up and said, "Qingming Weiyuan has undertaken a major overhaul of the Hanyang Pass fortifications and stationed a large army there, with their defensive direction clearly aimed at my Xu family. Their wolfish ambitions are no longer concealed!"

Xu Lanshan rested her chin on her hand and said casually, "So what? How about we ask Elder Nineteen to lead the army to conquer Hanyang Pass?"

The elder's face turned pale and then red, and he sat down without saying another word.

Over the years, Xu Lanshan's cultivation has progressed extremely rapidly, and it is said that she is already constructing her spiritual palace. Many elders of the Imperial Realm are quite envious of this, but they have never dared to show it.

Another elder said, "The Azure Nether Weapons are extremely powerful and must be taken seriously. Just because Wei Yuan isn't making a move now doesn't mean he won't in the future. Once he has gathered enough immortals, the Immortal Ancestor will be unable to support us alone and will have to rely on the army to resist. Therefore, imitating and even surpassing the Azure Nether Weapons is imperative!"

Xu Lanshan finally showed an expression and said, "The core of Qingming's weaponry lies in gunpowder. Aren't there quite a few people within Qingming who want to sell gunpowder formulas? Buy them all back. Then study them one by one, and it shouldn't be difficult to crack them."

"What if we buy a fake?" one elder expressed concern.

Xu Lanshan said calmly, "If we buy a fake, we will report this to Qingming. With Wei Yuan's abilities, he will not let us down."

All the elders thought the plan was feasible.

After the meeting ended, Xu Lanshan left the main hall and flew directly to the secret realm where Xu Wangu was in seclusion. The elders watched her depart, their expressions varying. No elder could see the Immortal Ancestor so frequently, so many rumors and gossips arose, both openly and secretly.

But this time, Xu Lanshan was blocked by a divine thought as soon as she arrived at the entrance of the secret realm.

"Wait a moment," Xu Wangu's voice came immediately.

Xu Lanshan was somewhat surprised; this was the agreed-upon time, and there had never been a delay before. Just then, a figure suddenly appeared, walking slowly towards them.

It was a woman in black robes with a shaved head, whose blue eyes were unforgettable. The woman with blue eyes silently walked past Xu Lanshan and entered the secret realm.

(End of this chapter)