Chapter 927

The northern barbarians have always been the adversaries of the Great Wu. These barbarians are also in league with demons and monsters; since ancient times, they have frequently raided the south, and in history, they have more than once brought about the downfall of southern dynasties. Yet, this northern barbarian entity is an organized, documented organization that can be called a nation, which is why it can be termed the Great Wu's most ferocious enemy. Within this nation, there also exist Celestial Experts and tribes of Demon Kings.

Previously, the grasslands were a scene of competing heroes—though the Great Wu Dynasty had long since lacked the capital to intervene in this struggle, having to hold its passes firmly to prevent the northern barbarians from moving south. In recent years, the situation has become clear: a powerful lord named Kuotuotie-muer led the Oirat tribe to defeat the other tribes. Seeing that he was about to unify the grasslands, he only lacked holding a grand assembly by the Onon River to ascend to the position of Great Khan in the name of Eternal Heaven.

There had previously been unprecedented battles between Demon Kings and Celestial Experts, and one Celestial Expert was even truly slain, which counted as a world-shaking event within the last few decades—though that happened when this body of Bai Lang was still young.

Today, the world of the Great Wu is already quite perilous. Although there is no great turmoil in the Jiangnan region and taxes and grain can still be collected, the authority of the Great Wu imperial court there has already been usurped by the great clans—naturally, on the surface, it remains the Great Wu imperial court, and they have many of their own people in the court; could it be that they would issue imperial edicts contrary to their own interests?

The Zheng-tong Emperor is increasingly plagued by internal heat, the Crown Prince's nerves are stretched extremely tight, and the second and third princes are also devising various ways to ascend to power. The people coming to visit Bai Lang, this prince, are truly an endless stream. However, he has turned the vast majority of them away. "The things the second and third brothers have promised are truly many; it is easy to be generous with other people's wealth," Bai Lang remarked with a laugh to his two wives after looking at the documents left behind by the second and third princes' strategists.

Bai Lang currently does not even have guards for his princely mansion. The Zheng-tong Emperor did not mention it, and Bai Lang did not bring it up, so the Zheng-tong Emperor naturally and logically cast it to the back of his mind—for a prince of Bai Lang's rank, he should have at least three guards totaling 1,200 soldiers, which are the princely mansion guards paid for by the state. Bai Lang did not mention it, so his guards were gone. Furthermore, Bai Lang did not mention that he wanted to be enfeoffed at the border, and according to the Great Wu Dynasty's system, there is a provision for princes to be enfeoffed at the border.

If a prince wants to be enfeoffed at the border, he must go to the frontier to guard it; this is the ancestral law left behind from the time of the Founding Emperor. Moreover, the first generation of enfeoffed princes did indeed become border kings in this way. Later, through several generations of princely titles being enfeoffed, revoked, or ending due to the lack of heirs in border wars, there are now no border kings left—those who truly lacked the courage to continue could, of course, request the imperial court to revoke their titles. If the current Prince of Jin were to be enfeoffed at the border, a Celestial Expert leading troops would be as stable as Mount Tai.

Therefore, there is naturally a view in the imperial court to let the Prince of Jin be enfeoffed at the northern border, but some also worry: what if the Prince of Jin colludes with foreign enemies to seize the throne? Could anyone stop him? "These are the words of base, petty men," Bai Lang said. Such petty-mindedness, worrying about gains and losses, is undoubtedly that of the Zheng-tong Emperor. In the end, only after the Zheng-tong Emperor confirmed he could not absorb Bai Lang's cultivation did he issue a clear edict.

It seems this old man finally made up his mind to exclude Bai Lang from the succession struggle, and for this, he likely prepared a contingency plan. The edict was to enfeoff Bai Lang with a region in the north. "It's actually called Bingzhou, though it is indeed an important town on the northern frontier. It has 37,000 households and 140,000 people..." The civilian population in this place is indeed sparse, though the area is quite vast. There are far more soldiers than civilians, and naturally, there are many family members accompanying the army.

However, as a border king, Bai Lang has no authority to command the border troops directly under the Ministry of War and the Governor's Office, and the military cities composed of border troop families are naturally not under his jurisdiction either. What he can manage are the civilian households and the princely mansion's three guards, which were finally established. The money and grain to support the army after the enfeoffment must come from his own pocket, and even for weapons and armor, he must submit official documents and pay for them to be allocated by the central government. This imperial edict plunged the Crown Prince into ecstasy; for a moment, he didn't even refer to himself as 'Zhen' (the Emperor) in his mind, but began using 'Gu' (the lonely one).

Several brothers were extremely dejected, not expecting the old man to be so cunning, pulling them all back to the same starting line in one stroke. At this moment, even the old man did not know that he was about to die...

Bai Lang went directly to his fief. He had nothing in the capital, and the treasures bestowed by the Zheng-tong Emperor only barely reached the standard for a Prince of the First Rank. "State affairs are difficult; I truly cannot produce more silver." So, Bai Lang very reasonably requested to take his foster mother with him, and the Zheng-tong Emperor, after much thought, agreed.

Then let's go. Bai Lang unleashed his divine powers, and with a roll of fire clouds, he flew directly toward his fief. Within Longcheng, the capital of Bingzhou, the princely mansion had not even been built yet, but Bai Lang, the Prince of Jin, had already descended from the sky with his entire princely mansion entourage and caravan. "About right, the Great Teleportation is limited to these hundred or so people, at most plus these thirty carriages. So, relying on a Celestial Expert's cultivation to fly thousands of troops across hundreds or thousands of miles in one roll is impossible."

This single leap of his had already covered a distance of three thousand miles. If he had traveled on the road, even if both men and horses were magnificent, it would have taken a month or so.

The princely mansion actually existed; the descendants of the previous border king finally could not hold on after guarding the border for decades and requested a favor from the imperial court to revoke the princely title. This mansion had been empty for about twenty years. Now, the local government had only swept and cleaned it, repairing the originally dilapidated parts—although someone swept and cleaned it every year, a house without residents is easily dilapidated. Especially the furniture and such; it needed to be repaired or replaced.

There were also the barracks and drill grounds where the princely mansion's three guards would live, but these were outside the walls of Longcheng. There were provincial troops in the provincial city, but they were permanently understaffed, and now there were only three hundred or so old, weak, sick, and disabled soldiers pretending to be three thousand; the rest, of course, were locals eating empty rations. In any case, defense mainly relied on the archery societies and local militias organized by the local great clans, and the provincial city was relatively far back; the barbarians could not reach Longcheng without breaking through the passes.

The border king's mansion was much larger than the one in the capital—pavilions, towers, mountains, water, rivers, lakes, and even a forest; it occupied an area at least as large as the Summer Palace in Bai Lang's memory. Leaving the local government to continue cleaning and repairing, Bai Lang, the Princess, his foster mother, and others first stayed in a garden belonging to a local wealthy merchant. "Recruiting personnel... this is not difficult as long as money and grain are provided. Half of the local taxes will be handed over to me, the border king, which is more than enough to support 1,200 people."

Among the previously enfeoffed border kings, none had achieved the status of Celestial Expert; the highest was only a Grandmaster—they were much more talented than this Prince of Jin and could have sat in the capital with ease... if they had achieved the status of Celestial Expert. It just so happened that Bai Lang, this Celestial Expert, was too honest and actually came to be a border king, but he also had an advantage—he did not need that many troops. A border king who is a Grandmaster cannot protect himself with 1,200 troops; he would need at least 12,000 or more, the more the better.