Chapter 2203

The State Preceptor of Shuangye repeated this sentence over and over, then further confirmed: "The Thousand-Eyed Cave has been destroyed, and the Emperor is unaware?"

"At least on the surface, he is unaware."

That is to say, the establishment of the Thousand-Eyed Cave experimental site was not informed to Lingxu City by the Heavenly Palace.

The Demon Emperor may or may not know, but he has never communicated this with the Heavenly Palace.

Then, at this moment, openly using the destruction of the Thousand-Eyed Cave as a pretext to expand the war would necessarily be inappropriate.

This is called an unspoken pain.

But the heavenly gods cannot simply bury their heads and swallow such a great humiliation.

The anger of an emperor causes blood to float and rafts to drift; then, what is the anger of the heavenly gods?

Naturally, it should be mountains of corpses and seas of blood!

Shuangye slowly nodded: "I understand."

Because of the Battle of Mouya, over the past half year, the Heavenly Palace, representing the will of the gods, has repeatedly consulted with the Mou Kingdom court. The heavenly gods wish for Bekka to intensify its offensive, which contradicts the Demon Emperor's will, leading to frequent friction, and Bekka's troop deployments are always thunderous but rainless, falling short of the heavenly gods' intentions.

As the head of the State Preceptors who holds real power, Shuangye naturally needs to mediate well and strive to implement the heavenly gods' will to the fullest extent.

"Please, State Preceptor, urge the Mou Kingdom court to inflict a heavy blow on Mouguo!" the Yun Cloud Envoy even said clearly: "If Mouguo had swiftly destroyed Yaguo, Bekka would have been caught off guard, and the divine venerables were already displeased, for this outcome could have been entirely avoided."

Had Bekka early intensified its attack on Mouguo, how could Mouguo have had the surplus strength to annex Yaguo?

In the heavenly gods' view, this irreparable mistake occurred because Lingxu City did not exert its full effort, because Lingxu City outwardly complied but inwardly resisted.

The majesty of the heavenly gods has been challenged, so this time they must increase pressure on Lingxu City.

"The so-called 'Awakening of Insects' season has already arrived; indeed, something should be done." Shuangye State Preceptor pondered, "Then, we need a suitable opportunity."

Even though he is the State Preceptor, he cannot demand the Demon Emperor deploy troops out of thin air.

"What kind of opportunity?" the Yun Cloud Envoy always felt somewhat regretful, "The war between Mouguo and Yaguo has already ended."

In his view, he also felt the Demon Emperor had been somewhat inactive during the Mouya War.

"After the Mouya War ended, Bekka lost face. Now, not only is the court and populace of the Mou Kingdom in an uproar, but most vassal demon states are also stirred, unanimously advocating war." Shuangye slowly said, "What is needed now is merely a justification for unavoidable military action."

The two discussed further, then Shuangye withdrew from Mount Xushan.

He did not look back. The Yun Cloud Envoy saw him walking alone under the bright moonlight, behind him dragged a shadow with bared teeth and waving claws.

……

Two thunderclaps echoed from the horizon, followed immediately by a torrential downpour.

At this time it was already the Xu hour, the night as dark as ink, Du Shan held a plate of mung bean cakes, walking to the eaves of the Canglan Terrace to gaze upon the splendid lights of Ju City, still feeling some emotion.

In just two years, Ju City's area has doubled, bustling with carriages and horses by day, and even rainy nights are brightly lit. This place has become the most prosperous region east of Mou Kingdom, and also the most important economic hub of the Jin Gold Plains, with commercial traffic flowing continuously day and night, twelve shichen without cease.

Cang Yan planned over a dozen major cities on the Jin Gold Plains, but development progress varies, and none can match the development of the capital city.

The observatory where Du Shan resides is an original structure of the Chixiao Golden Hall, its sign unchanged, close to the Imperial Study, but this place is actually a famous scenic spot of the Huan Sect; standing in the observatory, one can see the rippling blue waves of the inverted sea; now the Chixiao Golden Hall has become Cang Yan's palace, the observatory's location remains prominent, but it has become a place where officials take turns standing night watch.

Taking the end of the Zi hour as the boundary, each night is still divided into upper and lower shifts, to handle sudden emergencies.

There is a saying that the Nine Abysses Great Emperor wants ministers, even if deep in the inner palace, to have eyes that can see the people's livelihood.

At this moment, there are still two hours until shift end, Du Shan has finished his governmental affairs, so he is idling for a while, eating something.

The Great Emperor perfected the Canglan Terrace system three months ago, with the Canglan Terrace led by the Left and Right Ministers. Du Shan remains the Left Minister, in charge of foreign diplomacy, Lü Qiuwei as the Right Minister, in charge of domestic livelihood, with a term of three years.

After three years, the Great Emperor evaluates whether to continue or select new personnel. Within three years, if a terrace minister commits a major fault, the Emperor personally removes and replaces them.

Clearly, the Nine Abysses Great Emperor drew reference from Mou Kingdom's Auxiliary Terrace Cabinet system, and made corresponding adjustments. Cang Yan's national conditions differ from Mou Kingdom's after all, but this part of the system is beneficial to He Lingchuan's future plans.

After responsibilities were clearly divided, Du Shan's workload sharply decreased, and he also became much more relaxed.

But just as he picked up the second mung bean cake, the palace guards flew in, running and saluting, holding a document overhead with both hands:

"Du Minister, Yanshan has a message."

This is an orange document.

Orange represents urgent matters, red is for ten-thousand-fire urgency.

Du Shan casually opened it and glanced twice, couldn't help but utter a sound of surprise.

He stuffed the mung bean cake into his mouth, casually set the plate aside, "Hold the umbrella, go see the Emperor!"

He Lingchuan had nothing to do tonight, was cultivating behind closed doors, heard the Minister requesting an audience, ceased practice and rose.

Recently, Cang Yan's external environment has been stable, internal affairs although complex, but no major disasters or harms, state affairs can still operate normally and stably. He can also spend more time on his own cultivation.

The Demon Emperor and the Mou Emperor both like to handle state affairs through trusteeship, precisely because they themselves must cultivate without slack.

Du Shan hurried in, placed the letter on the desk: "Your Majesty, this is an urgent matter from the Red Yan Crown Prince. Something has happened in the Mou Kingdom's maritime domain."

"Mou Kingdom's maritime domain?" He Lingchuan casually flipped through it, his heart also startled.

At this moment, it has only been four days since the Mou army captured the capital of Yaguo, and Fushan Yue just sent him firsthand news:

A Bekka convoy transporting troops and supplies, in the waters surrounding Mou Kingdom's Ta Island, encountered an attack, nearly the entire force was wiped out.

Throughout the Mouya War period, Bekka had been continuously supplying Yaguo with materials and manpower. However, due to Yaguo's unfavorable geographical position, located deep in Mou Kingdom's rear, that is to say, Bekka's dispatched convoys had to detour around the entire Mou Kingdom maritime domain to supply Yaguo.

This presents two problems: one is lack of timeliness, the other is great risk.

Yaguo's capital has already been destroyed by the Mou army, yet Bekka's warships still slowly crawl toward that place, and it will still take over ten days to reach the Yangshan Archipelago.

As for risk, it goes without saying that maritime transport itself is full of unknowns, and the countless sunken ships in the Yangshan Archipelago waters can prove this point.

Moreover, Mou Kingdom strictly patrols and guards all coastal ports along the route, absolutely forbidding Bekka's warships from docking.

Therefore, Bekka's warships can only sail far from the Mou Kingdom coastline, and on two occasions, because they sailed too close, both sides had friction and clashes, resulting in dozens of casualties.

Furthermore, since Bekka transports support to Yaguo, it can only stop and resupply in the Yangshan Archipelago midway, and Mou Kingdom once had designs on the Yangshan Archipelago.

Originally, it was a thorn in Mou Kingdom's eye, and later, it added difficulty to Mou Kingdom's attack on Yaguo, so Mou Kingdom truly wanted to launch another expedition to eliminate it.