You became an emperor by letting me AFK.

Feng Tianyin ordered Gegentana to convene another "missionary conference" under the pretext of inviting believers from all sides. This would become a "pilgrimage" that would cause the Tiandao Sect's faith to spread explosively.

She instructed the priests to coordinate with a propaganda campaign.

The groundwork laid by the Great Qian Dynasty over the years was not in vain; one indicator is quite significant:

Literacy rate.

Thanks to this, the Tiandao Sect can print and disseminate the "Sacred Precepts" and a series of religious and traditional Chinese texts on a large scale. We are not afraid of spreading knowledge; we are only afraid that you will not know our profound knowledge.

Feng Tianyin wasn't worried that the other party would rise to power and ascend to immortality after learning the technology.

On the contrary, the more you learn, the closer you will be to the Great Qian Dynasty.

This place is uniquely suited to science, which encourages scientific research, subsidizes research, and encourages open discussion. As knowledge spreads throughout the Great Qian Dynasty, more and more people place their hopes here.

Besides complementing Feng Tianyin's education, literacy rate also has another important significance: to make everyone a missionary.

As long as they can read the contents of the book aloud, that's fine.

It means proselytizing.

After receiving the order, Gegentana immediately mobilized the priests to spread the word that "the Heavenly Dao Festival of the 80th anniversary of enlightenment will be different, and there will be even more auspicious omens..." With some necessary embellishment, she got the marketing strategy all figured out.

She has always been good at this.

In the entire Great Qian Dynasty, when it comes to propaganda, no one can rival the Great Prophet's talent. Faced with a series of interconnected propaganda statements, coupled with the priests' influence rooted in the grassroots, the Southern Blessed Plains quickly learned of what had happened and were filled with anticipation.

"It is said that the High Priest received a divine revelation, and this festival will bring forth an immense amount of auspicious omens." "Then I must go to Xia Yi to see for myself. I should set off ahead of time."

"You can see it even further south on the Great Plains, so there's no need to travel far."

"That's different."

"I want to express my piety to Heaven."

A significant number of believers are willing to travel thousands of miles to reach Xiayi, which they consider a holy city, a land directly watched over and protected by the divine.

Moreover, the High Priest, as the de facto pope, possesses extraordinary appeal, attracting a large number of pilgrims every year.

The once-a-decade Heavenly Dao Festival is not to be missed.

The inner palace is issuing a public notice.

Whenever a major event occurs, Xia County prints out numerous related announcements, which are often illustrated and easy to understand, aiming to ensure the public has access to the information as much as possible. Since literacy rates have greatly increased, there's no concern about the interpretation being altered; it's all about the literal meaning.

It was the precursor to the newspaper of the future, and the reason it is not developed now is simply because of inconvenient transportation.

The Great Qian Dynasty's emphasis on influence was based on a vision that transcended its time.

Hard to guard against.

Therefore, after wave of information bombardment, the southern border of the Cifu Plain, which was in the first wave of impact, felt the effects intensely.

A large number of believers in the pagan city-state embarked on the pilgrimage.

Over the years, it has become difficult to call them "heretics" anymore. In fact, a considerable number of them have transformed into devout believers. The old term is outdated, and they themselves are unaware of their strong yearning for the Way of Heaven.

As a result, many people left their homes and went there.

They don't plan to come back; they'll settle in Daqian from now on, and they're not familiar with their original city-state hometown.

Looking towards the river.

It remains the most unfortunate group to be impacted, with a large number of people leaving.

After years of enduring hardship, the city lord Lin Jian heard that another missionary conference had stirred up his psychological trauma. He gritted his teeth and said, "This time we can't bear it anymore."

"My lord, are we going to start a war?"

"No, I'm not out of my mind. As long as we stop people from leaving, we can prevent Daqian from undermining us."

His curses were just words uttered in anger; he had a clear sense of right and wrong and knew how to weigh the consequences. How could a mere city-state like Wangjiang withstand the wrath of the Great Qian Dynasty? The only options were to reduce population loss, both overtly and covertly.

Because these people easily spread the word, it's really annoying.

He cannot allow the loss of believers to destabilize the order.

“Be careful not to be too violent. We just need to set up checkpoints along the way to stop believers. The key is not what we want them to do, but to prevent imitators from following suit, otherwise there will be no peace.”

Lin Jian spoke with great emotion.

Everyone understood the considerations behind this and nodded in agreement, not daring to be negligent in the slightest.

Wangjiang had to bear this pressure alone. Indeed, during this decade, the only remaining ally of the pagan city-state had defected to the Great Qian.

Its oath of allegiance to Feng Tianyin signifies the collapse of the heretical city-state alliance.

They were nothing but withered bones in a tomb long ago. The alliance had effectively ceased to exist after the defeat in the war, but today it is being buried, finally giving a verdict, and that is all.

"In addition, we should request assistance from Qingzhou."

"We can't just keep racking our brains. Let's see their attitude. What exactly is the King of Qingzhou thinking?"

After Lin Jian gave the order, the messenger immediately set off at top speed.

Now that the river has been dredged again, people can travel by boat, which allows information to be delivered much faster.

The envoy from Wangjiang hurriedly boarded a boat and left the city-state.

Bearing the mission entrusted to Lord Lin Jian, they could not afford to be late. Therefore, the group adopted a "small boat to large boat" strategy, using small boats to travel faster on the relatively safe river, and then switching to larger boats halfway through the journey.

Only large ships can withstand wind and waves; otherwise, the turbulent currents of the stream would make one understand what true turbulence is.

It can shake you until you vomit blood.

Upon arriving at a towering three-masted sailing ship, the envoy sighed. The first thing he saw was the emblem of the Great Qian Dynasty, indicating that it was a transport ship operated by the other side.

Stable, fast, and with a large load capacity, only they can manufacture it.

As a country that also relies on inland waterway transportation, Daqian's shipbuilding technology has made rapid progress in recent years, filling the entire inland waterway. Even Qingzhou has bought a lot of their large ships.

Ugh.

It's hard not to associate this with Daqian laying the groundwork for large-scale transportation.

The envoy from Wangjiang had also heard intelligence such as "Daqian is training a navy," "Why are the northerners training so many naval forces?" and "The temple has increased the budget for all ports," etc. Clearly, some important figures were paying attention.

It can only be the High Priestess Feng Tianyin.

She always plans things out before acting, and is not the type to act on a whim. Even if you feel something is amiss, you will often find that there were signs beforehand after thinking about it.

Everything we're seeing now is probably a harbinger of something.

“Your Excellency, stop sighing and complaining. Let’s have a drink together.”

The attendant made the suggestion with a smile, and he readily agreed. There was a restaurant on the ship, though it was small and not crowded. After all, those who could travel on such a ship were either rich or powerful and had some background, which naturally filtered out most people, leaving only those with considerable wealth.

According to Daqian's official terminology: "high-potential consumer group".

"Lord Kerong!"

Upon entering, he saw a familiar figure – a senior clerk of the Great Qian Dynasty and a member of the court council.

He smiled and responded to the greeting, "Lord Lin Zhao, how have you been?"

They knew each other well, having worked together on diplomatic projects.

You see each other all the time in this circle.

At this time, Lin Zhao also discovered that the guests were basically from Daqian. He could tell most of them from their speech, behavior and clothing. It was as if they were leading an entire delegation on a visit, and it was definitely related to the business world.

His heart sank. After all, they were acquaintances, but they were on different sides and served different masters, so they were in competition with each other.

Korong casually invited the delegation from Wangjiang City-State, who had no choice but to take a seat. Face had to be given; after all, this group was backed by the powerful High Priest.

"Brother Lin, to be honest, I'm going to Qingzhou to discuss business."

"...I asked them for help."

"Forget about work troubles, let's talk about this beautiful scenery and relax."

Ke Rong laughed loudly and subtly changed the subject, clearly not intending to delve into it further. The Great Qian's intelligence system was perfectly clear on the matter; there was no need to waste time probing.

not to mention.

Chatting with the other person can actually help you glean more information indirectly.

Hearing this, Lin Zhao breathed a sigh of relief. If they continued to discuss the calculations of each party, they would have to brainstorm for a while.

He now felt relieved, as if granted a pardon.

After a few rounds of drinks, they started chatting and had a long talk with high-ranking officials of the Qianlong Emperor. Sometimes they would go fishing together, sometimes they would play cards, and sometimes they would even compose poems when they were really in the mood.

These few days on the boat were indeed a rare moment of relaxation, washing away the fatigue of work.

We're almost at shore.

Upon arriving at the port deep within Qingzhou territory, they discovered a massive number of cargo ships bearing the banner of the Great Qian Dynasty docked there—there were so many!

Lin Zhao suddenly woke up from his drunken stupor, his brows furrowed.

He clearly saw a fleet, capable of galloping south from north to south and sweeping across all directions.

The key point is the view of the river.

Because the city-state of my hometown guards the entrance to a relatively steep hilly area with a swift current, fortifying it would make the entire shipping route unsafe. Conversely, if we control it, we can sail downstream.

Extensive water transport meant the cultivation of a large number of people skilled in swimming.

Northerners are not good at naval warfare, but Feng Tianyin has been working hard to catch up in recent years and should not be underestimated.

"Lord Coron, are we going the same way?"

Does this imply a visit to the King of Qingzhou? That man is meticulous, famously encouraging commerce, and has a deep interest in the ocean, especially after his failed expansion on the plains, when he vigorously developed navigation. He must have common ground with the envoy from Daqian.

Of course.

There are also many potential conflicts of interest, because the King of Qingzhou dislikes the Heavenly Dao Sect.

“It’s not on my way. I need to meet with the local chamber of commerce representatives first, and then I’ll go to see His Majesty Hou Yu. If we’re lucky, we should be able to meet again.”

"Then I'll take my leave now. There's always another time."

It's best to forget about the luck of seeing him again; every matter related to the Great Qian Dynasty gives Lin Zhao a headache.

The two said their goodbyes.

They both understood that today's visit was a harbinger of trouble; they possessed that level of judgment. Clearly, war was not far off. Conflict was imminent; how would it end?