The Overlord of the Red Mansion

Chapter 305 Opening up territories

The fifth year of the Holy Dynasty, the eighth day of the Lunar New Year.

"Long live my emperor! Long live!"

Thirty-two-year-old Jia Rong sat on the supreme throne, looking at the ministers below.

"Flat body."

"Thank you, Your Majesty!"

Everyone stood up, those who had nothing to do went back to sit down, and those who had something to say stood in front to start speaking.

After the death of the Zong Zheng, a new Zong Zheng would be appointed, so the positions in the court would not be vacant for too long due to death.

However, the Zong Zheng is different from other Zong Zhengs. In the past, one was able to participate in state affairs only because he was valued by Jia Rong. Now, Jia Rong has no friendship with the new Zong Zheng, so naturally he does not take him seriously.

Position is not the key, and official rank does not represent everything. Just like Jia Rong in the past, whether or not one can get the attention of the emperor is very important.

The Left Prime Minister has concentrated most of the power over the years and has been busy with state affairs, but his reputation and influence have not increased.

First of all, he has no intention of attracting attention, nor does he have the idea of becoming a powerful minister.

Secondly, Jia Rong was in his prime, and even if he ran away from home, he would only be back after half a year. The power in the court had always been very well checked and balanced, and it was not the case that whatever the two prime ministers said was the final word.

Especially when it comes to matters involving imperial power and military power, several forces are supervising each other.

Thirdly, Jia Rong did a lot of things.

For example, the disaster relief and rescue system, the border army title system, the local reinforcement system, the state-owned enterprise appointment system, the holy church, the Shengrong poetry collection... and so on.

The people are more appreciative of the Holy Emperor who provided food relief, jobs for the victims, and interest-free loans to rebuild their homes at this critical moment.

Even in places that had not been affected by the disaster, Jia Rong's Holy Church was constantly planting smallpox vaccines.

The more people die from smallpox, the smoother and faster the promotion of the vaccine will be. Most people will only get vaccinated after someone around them is in trouble, and they will pay for it.

Reduce taxes and burdens, provide disaster relief, build roads and water conservancy facilities at own expense, send people to solve large-scale infectious diseases, build schools to spread knowledge, and recruit talents on a large scale.

The Left Prime Minister had no right to compete with Jia Rong for fame and fortune. Most people didn't even know his name, so how could they agree that he should be a powerful official?

The Left Prime Minister himself did not have that kind of idea. He had always worked diligently. Jia Rong had given him a lot of rewards, and the Left Prime Minister himself also wanted to leave a good reputation.

"Your Majesty, the Spanish Expedition has received a victory report in Poland. Germany and France are willing to assist our army in attacking Spain."

Jia Rong frowned, "Did they reach Poland?"

The left prime minister presented the battle report with both hands, along with a military map that was sent back.

The eunuch placed the thing respectfully on the table and unfolded it. Jia Rong sat up and looked at the military map on the scroll, which listed in detail the areas captured along the way.

Basically, they followed the route that the Yuan Dynasty army took to advance westward, and now they are stuck in Germany.

A few years ago, they had already reached the Central Asian provinces, and now they have broken through the Kingdom of Poland and the Kingdom of Bohemia and entered the Holy Roman Empire.

The current Germany is still the Holy Roman Empire, but Jia Rong named them Germany. Of course, the family members mainly refer to Jia Rong and don’t care what others call themselves.

Looking at the route on the map, Spain is now only two territories away, Germany and France.

It seemed that it took the Yuan Dynasty army six or seven years to complete the conquest of Eastern Europe. It took us several years as well. Although it was short, it was not particularly fast either.

Jia Rong frowned, "I wanted to build a fleet to defeat the Spanish fleet, but I didn't expect that the Western Expedition Army approached Spain before the ships were built."

The navy had been building ships for several years, but when they saw that the army was about to reach Spain, they became restless.

The left prime minister immediately said, "Your Majesty, the sea is dangerous and the journey is long without drinking water from land. Even after several years of building ships, it is not certain that they can reach the overseas Kingdom of Spain smoothly. Moreover, the transmission of news is too slow. I think we should use the army to capture the Kingdom of Spain."

At this time, the military was still dominated by the army, and the Minister of War also stepped forward to request a fight.

"Your Majesty, last year we selected five thousand Liao soldiers, five thousand surrendered soldiers from the grassland, and ten thousand Central Asian cavalry to join the Western Expedition Army. Now we have enough troops and horses, and we can capture Spain and take revenge in no time!" Jia Rong frowned, remembering that it was the Spanish fleet that attacked his port first, which led to him going all the way to settle accounts with them.

I have been busy for many years.

"The army has done a good job, and the navy cannot stop there. The navy will also have a place to play in the future."

Jia Rong knows the importance of the navy and that land forces will become a miserable force in the future.

That's the way of the times.

"Order the Spanish Expedition Army to decide on their own military plan to capture Spain. The journey is long, so make your own decision and don't wait for my arrangement."

"How did you get food along the way?"

Jia Rong was curious about how logistics issues were managed today. After a long journey of more than a year, the pressure of logistics and transportation should be enormous.

The Right Prime Minister bowed and saluted, "Your Majesty, the military supplies on the road will be supplemented by transportation, and the main purpose is to requisition on the spot. According to the arrangement of the Majesty not to disturb the people, the army will be given some money for requisitioning food, and the caravans opened up later will sell some medicinal herbs, tea, silk, etc."

"Nowadays, most West Asian merchants gather in the Central Asian Province to exchange what they have and what they need. There are also merchants from the Rakshasa Kingdom who provide food and wine in exchange for guns, cannons and bullets that our army does not need."

After hearing this, Jia Rong roughly understood the situation of the supplies.

The Western Expedition Corps had only 20,000 of its own people, most of whom were surrendered soldiers or forcibly conscripted slaves.

Wars attract merchants, and now the Central Asian province has become a new trading point.

The herdsmen knew that they could exchange supplies there, the merchants also knew that a great deal of wealth was gathered there, and the Rakshasa Kingdom in the north also joined in.

Jia Rong felt a little strange. "To be honest, there is one thing I don't quite understand. Why does Luosha have such a good relationship with us?"

The left prime minister replied, "Your Majesty, not only the Rakshasa Kingdom, but also the foreign and small countries overseas, as well as the nine border countries have always been respectful to the Holy Dynasty, paying tribute on time every year, with countless gold, silver, jewelry, spices and beauties."

Jia Rong thought about it after hearing this.

It seems true.

It's not that the Rakshasa Kingdom has a keen eye for talent and comes to help when others are looking for trouble, but that our country is always causing trouble and fighting whether we pay tribute or not.

War is not imminent, and reconnaissance will definitely be conducted before the battle.

What weapons did the soldiers use, how long did the war last, how large the scale was, what clothes did they wear, what did they eat, and what were their achievements.

If they feel they cannot defeat the enemy, they will naturally cooperate and pay tribute obediently.

Jia Rong has destroyed several countries, but he is not interested in expanding territory.

"Central Asia Province really needs to be developed well." Jia Rong realized the importance of Central Asia Province.

If we control Eurasia in the future, this place will be far more suitable to be the imperial capital than the capital.

But before, that place was made up of large and small countries and tribes, and it would take a very long time to unify the language and common sense.

Fortunately, Jia Rong was not in a hurry.

"We will arrange for the talents who have passed the imperial examination this year to be taught the teachings of the sages and the Confucian classics, and teach them to learn the doctrines of loyalty, filial piety, benevolence and righteousness of our dynasty."

"Any Juren who goes to support education and construction in Central Asia for three years can come back to serve as an official to govern the local area. If they are Jinshi, they can start directly at the sixth rank."

Nowadays, the imperial examinations are held every year, and the number is much greater than before.

Especially those failed scholars who used to talk about sage teachings, but now they passed the exam because of the policy, and they still talk about sage teachings.

Jia Rong didn't need so many liberal arts students anyway, so he used them to teach foreigners about etiquette, morality, integrity and shame.

Moreover, these scholars had chaotic relationships between men and women, and were more likely to leave offspring in the local area than warriors. Without the constraints of family, they were more unruly and could also be used as boars for breeding and blood transfusion.

(End of this chapter)