Longzang

Chapter 1155 Development
Wei Yuan carefully considered the plan and was very satisfied with it. He then added a divine sense imprint to it and officially began its implementation.

Now, all major laws, measures, and policies require Wei Yuan's divine imprint to be considered legitimate. This divine imprint is difficult to forge and has become standard practice for official documents approved by officials at all levels, akin to a seal from the outer world.

The moment the plan was implemented, Wei Yuan suddenly had a strange feeling, as if the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth was slowly resuming its operation, some parts breaking apart and others being formed. It was a pity that Wei Yuan was not an immortal, otherwise he could have investigated and found out what major event had occurred.

Unbeknownst to him, at this moment, within the Pure Land, Mount Ling trembled, the earth cracked, and even the largest fissures were filled with subterranean fire.

There are not many lotus pedestals left on Mount Ling. At this moment, several more lotus pedestals have broken, and some of the lotus pedestals that originally had Buddha statues sitting on them have also fallen down as the lotus pedestals have broken.

These Buddha statues were originally serene and smiling, but now some of them show panic, some show compassion, and some show doubt; their expressions are all different.

But they all became extremely clumsy, as if they had truly turned into clay or wooden figures, constantly falling from Mount Ling, crashing into rocks along the way, shattering their golden bodies, breaking off hands, and turning their heads off.

Several Buddha statues fell all the way down, finally landing at the foot of Mount Ling. The broken golden bodies were oozing grayish-white putrid water.

The last Buddha head rolled off, crashing into a broken piece of gold, flipping over to reveal a face contorted in extreme pain.

On the earth, several groups of monks were walking slowly, seemingly oblivious to the calamities around them.

……

In the Qingming Palace, Wei Yuan stood, pondering his next strategy.

Whether Wei Yuan likes it or not, a series of actions from Liu Miao, Cang Wu, Zun Zhu to Liu Li Xian Zhu are pushing Wei Yuan to the opposite side of the aristocratic families, gradually turning him into a defender of the Martial Ancestor's plan.

The situation forced Wei Yuan to make a choice, but the problem was, it wasn't what he wanted. Before figuring out the true nature of Martial Ancestor's plan, Wei Yuan didn't want to rashly take sides. Even if he had to choose a side, Wei Yuan would side with the Tai Chu Palace.

On the sand table in the Mountain and River Palace, the Azure Nether Heavy Armored Army was shown slowly advancing, sweeping all before them. The last few formidable passes of the Lü family fell in a single battle; none could withstand more than three days.

The fall of the three northern prefectures is a foregone conclusion, and even if the Lü family recalls all the northern garrison troops, it will be to no avail. The morale of the Lü family's army has collapsed, and at this moment, the prisoner-of-war camps in the rear alone are holding nearly 1.5 million prisoners of war. Now, the Lü family's troops either collapse at the first contact or surrender at the first sign of trouble, and many battles have ended without a single shot being fired.

On the sand table, a Qingming army far outpaced its allies, advancing northward along the Eastern Jin border. This isolated force had cut off the Lü family's escape route eastward into the Eastern Jin.

Looking at the map, where the Lü family's territory was almost gone, Wei Yuan suddenly frowned slightly. He vaguely felt as if an invisible hand was pushing him from behind to smash the Lü family's last ancestral land and completely eradicate it from the world.

Wei Yuan felt that demonstrating his desire to eradicate the Lü family was his own business, a warning to anyone who dared to oppose him. However, if a mastermind was pushing him to do this, then he would have to reconsider.

The current strategy is nothing more than digging deep tunnels, building high walls, storing up grain, and slowing down... Wei Yuan suddenly thought that the current monarchs do not live long, so he automatically omitted the last sentence.

Now, of the ten counties that originally belonged to the Lü family in Ganzhou, nine will fall into Wei Yuan's hands. Wei Yuan has no intention of relinquishing these nine counties. These nine counties have a population of approximately 800 million. Adding to this the central counties of the Western Jin Dynasty and the five southern counties, Wei Yuan now has a new territory of 26 counties with a population of 1.7 billion.

More than half of the Western Jin territory was already in Wei Yuan's hands. The only remaining areas were the northern border, the seven prefectures controlled by the Xu family in Ningzhou, and the four prefectures directly under the control of the capital.

At this time, it is evident that the Western Jin Dynasty was exhausted. Its territory was 30% larger than that of the Zhao Dynasty, but its population was less than one-third of that of the Zhao Dynasty. During the decades when the King of Jin neglected state affairs, the population of the Western Jin Dynasty decreased directly from 6 billion to less than 3 billion, a reduction of nearly 20% of its population.

However, at this moment, the territory directly controlled by Wei Yuan had become a vast expanse, dividing the Western Jin Dynasty in two from the center. To the west was the Xu family, residing in a remote corner, completely separated from the other regions. To the northeast were the capital, the northern frontier, and the eastern frontier. The military strength was still considerable, but it was a place of long-term warfare, with scarce resources and a sparse population.

The Western Jin treasury is now empty, and the border army has been taken over by Wei Yuan, relying entirely on Qingming for military pay and provisions. Therefore, although the border army is large and its combat power is not weak, there is no need to worry about it turning around to deal with Qingming.

With so much land and so many people, there hasn't been enough time to properly develop it. Therefore, Wei Yuan decided to halt expansion, focus on consolidating the areas he already possessed, and then see who could compete!
Although the decision had been made to temporarily halt expansion, some necessary actions still needed to be taken. Therefore, Wei Yuan wrote a letter and entrusted it to the Sword Palace to be delivered to the Xu family of Northern Qi.

The letter stated that Xu Shuhe had attempted to assassinate Wei Yuan, a heinous crime for which he deserved to die, even though he had already been executed. Wei Yuan, being magnanimous, proposed that the Xu family hand over three young geniuses capable of directly reaching the Imperial Realm, twenty young geniuses capable of directly reaching the Dharma Aspect Realm, and pay a compensation of one hundred million Qing Yuan, and the matter could be considered closed. Otherwise, he would inevitably destroy the Xu family's ancestral land and sever their bloodline's path to immortality!
After sending the letter, Wei Yuan anticipated that even if the Xu family of Northern Qi dared not comply, it would surely cause a great commotion.

……

The northern lands are now a world of ice and snow, with the roads buried under the heavy snow. At this time of year, only the warhorses of the Northern Liao can gallop across the snow-covered plains, as most breeds of human warhorses cannot withstand the bitter cold and find it even more difficult to walk through snow several feet deep.

At the border between the Western Jin and Eastern Jin dynasties, there was a flat terrain stretching for thousands of miles, with no natural defenses. The two sides built cities facing each other, hundreds of miles apart.

The Lü family built six cities in total, while the Eastern Jin Dynasty built eight cities.

On this day, military aura suddenly rose in the distant sky! Alarms sounded simultaneously in two cities, one in the east and one in the west, but the Western Jin used a signal horn while the Eastern Jin used a bell.

Then a troop of soldiers came marching in, their disciplined bearing and steely resolve evident. A fierce snowstorm raged, and though it was midday, the sky was as dark as if night had fallen. The border commanders on both sides wondered who these people were, marching through the snowstorm.

However, the wind was strong and the snow was heavy, making it impossible to see clearly from afar. Therefore, the commander of the Eastern Jin border city decided to send a cavalry unit out of the city to investigate.

The general personally led over a thousand elite cavalry out of the city, and when they approached the troops, the commander couldn't help but gasp!
The entire force consisted of steel vehicles, moving silently through the snow. Monks leaned out from the rooftops, surveying their surroundings. Many vehicles were equipped with guns and cannons, their muzzles pointing towards the sides of the road.

The entire force consisted of hundreds of steel vehicles of various types, like a giant steel python, winding its way across the land.

The Eastern Jin general, Faxiang, gasped in shock, then flew closer and shouted, "This is Eastern Jin territory! Who are you? Do you know you've entered Eastern Jin's domain? Quickly state your origins and await your fate!"

Inside a warm and inviting command vehicle in the center of the unit sat a noble young man who resembled a woman—it was Xiao Yu. Beside him, Shao Yang Xing Jun was reading a history of the Eastern Jin Dynasty.

At this moment, an officer entered the cabin and reported that there were Eastern Jin border troops blocking the road outside, led by a Faxiang General, and asked him to state his purpose.

"Eastern Jin border troops?" Xiao Yu finally looked up from the map, thought for a moment, and said, "Send a few men to capture that general, and don't let any of his soldiers escape. If there is any resistance, kill them without mercy."

The officer was slightly surprised, but said nothing and left after receiving the order.

A moment later, more than ten Golden Core Dharma Aspects ascended into the sky, led by an ordinary Earth-rank Dharma Aspect, and flew over menacingly. The Eastern Jin general was greatly surprised and braced himself to meet them.

The leader of the Azure Nether Army, Dharma Master, asked only one question: "Will you surrender or not?"

Seeing that the Eastern Jin general refused to surrender, Faxiang said, "Fine, just kill him."

The various Dharma forms attacked together, and countless beams of light converged into a stream of light. The first strike shattered the opponent's protective magic, and then more than ten magic swords pierced through his body, turning the Eastern Jin general into a sieve.

The thousand-plus elite cavalrymen were stunned by the sight of so many Dharma images. Most of them dismounted and surrendered, while a few fled back to where they came from.

The Dharma beings naturally couldn't attack mortals, but chariots had already begun to flank them. These chariots were all four-wheel drive, and their top speed was much faster than that of warhorses. They quickly caught up with the fleeing cavalry, and after a burst of machine gun fire, blood blossomed on the snow.

At this moment, Xiao Yu flew to the battlefield, glanced at it, pointed to the distant border town, and said, "Take it."

The entire army then turned and thundered towards the Eastern Jin border city. Those on the Western Jin border city, seeing this from afar, were utterly terrified. The Lü family generals immediately packed their valuables and fled the city without a moment's hesitation. Wealthy families and officials in the city followed suit, hastily fleeing as well.

Xiao Yu completely ignored the Lu family's petty actions, stood in the air, and quietly watched as the army besieged the city, blasted open the city gates with heavy artillery, and then the heavily armed infantry dismounted and entered the city, occupying this border town.

Xiao Yu gave another order: "Blow up all four gates."

Moments later, explosions echoed for miles, and the sturdy city walls of the border town collapsed with a deafening roar, completely destroyed. The Qingming Army, having plenty of explosives, blew up several more sections of the city wall. As a result, this border town, which had cost a fortune, was largely ruined, and rebuilding it would take months or even a year.

Xiao Yu was satisfied and ordered the troops to withdraw, taking the opportunity to capture all the Eastern Jin government troops and send them to the rear.

Shaoyang Xingjun, who had been watching from the sidelines the whole time, finally asked, "Does the Realm Lord intend to start a war with the Xu family of the Eastern Jin Dynasty?"

Xiaoyu was taken aback: "Is that so? I didn't receive any orders?"

Shaoyang Xingjun suddenly realized, "Then what you are doing is... Oh, I understand. You are trying to figure out the superior's intentions. You know that the Realm Lord intends to put the Xu family in a bad light, so you deliberately stirred up trouble."

Xiao Yu was taken aback again, and said, "I didn't mean that! I just simply don't like the Xu family. Last time, Xu Youyi actually dared to come to our door to bully us, but unfortunately, my Xiao family was too worried about many things and couldn't show up, which allowed this woman to show her power!"
"Hmph, I'm going to vent my anger this time! If it weren't for Uncle-Master Henshui's sake, I wouldn't have just swept through a few border towns; I would have taken over her entire prefecture. If Xu Youyi is not satisfied, let her come to the Xiao family to demand an explanation!"

Xiao Yu was completely unceremonious, even addressing Xu Youyi by her full name without any restraint, which showed how much she hated the immortals who had threatened Qingming that day.

However, Shao Yang Xingjun felt an urge to facepalm. He had thought Xiao Yu had finally matured, actually understanding how to assess situations and guess the emperor's intentions. He hadn't expected this girl to be just a big family bullying a small one.

The Lesser Yang Star Lord couldn't help but deeply regret that he had descended upon this guy in the first place. If he had been a little more reserved and had gone to Qingming first, he might have been able to become neighbors with Taiyin.

PS: I finally managed to post an update. I'm so glad I did.

(End of this chapter)