Chapter 1206: Xuzhou

Xuzhou is located on the shores of the East Sea.

It is a place in the Jiuzhou bordering the sea, located on the Qilu land of the Central Plains, and was also a place of four battles in the past.

Of course, this East Sea is not that East Sea; the East Sea of the Jiuzhou is just an inland sea, not the Four Seas of the Primordial Three Realms.

However, deep in the East Sea of the Jiuzhou, the spring eye connects to the Four Seas of the Primordial World. From that spring eye, one can step into the Four Seas of the Three Realms in one step.

Of course, that spring eye is not something ordinary people can pass through; without strong cultivation, one would be torn apart by the spring eye.

After all, the spring eye is very terrifying.

The four major spring eyes of the Four Seas of the Three Realms needed the physical body of the Ancestral Dragon of the past to suppress them before they were finally eased. Otherwise, if the spring eye vibrated, the Four Seas would be unstable.

East Sea Xuzhou was originally the most prosperous place in the Qilu land, and the current Xuzhou is also one of the most prosperous places in the southeast of the Liu Han imperial court.

Xuzhou's area can only be considered medium, but its population is even above that of Jizhou, with a full five hundred million people, and the number of merchants is even above that of Jizhou.

Xuzhou has several major merchant families, the top in the world in the future, among which the Mi family is the top existence among merchants in the world.

It is listed as one of the top ten merchants in Liu Han.

The Mi family has been in Xuzhou for a thousand years. In terms of foundation, it may not be comparable to those first-class families, but because of doing business, the wealth in the family is also rare, which also caused the strength of the Mi family.

After all, in this Transcendent world, the more wealth, the more resources. Although the Mi family's foundation cannot compare to those veteran families, and the family inheritance cannot compare.

But in the past thousand years, the Mi family has given birth to many powerhouses, and the Spirit Refining Realm has also given birth to three.

A cultivator in the Spirit Refining Realm has a lifespan of at least three thousand years, and even martial arts have a lifespan of a thousand years. Even if someone has left the Jiuzhou, at least one Mi family member is sitting in Xuzhou.

Naturally, it guaranteed the safety of the family.

The Mi family's vast wealth is also because of this, leading to the fact that even if some people covet it, they dare not act easily.

After all, no one knows exactly how many Spirit Refining Realm experts the Mi family has. If all three are there, even the imperial court will not easily take action.

Three Spirit Refining Realm experts joining forces may not be the opponent of an Earth Immortal Realm expert, but it is possible to block them for a while.

Once they escape and choose to wait for an opportunity to retaliate, even the imperial court will definitely not have a good time.

Unless the power of the imperial court is like the peak period, the Martial Emperor period, indeed, many families that were destroyed had Spirit Refining Realm experts.

However, it was limited to the Martial Emperor, because the Martial Emperor himself was a supreme powerhouse who surpassed the Earth Immortal Realm. In addition, the empire had a peerless general, that Champion Marquis, who was a top-tier war general, and even killed many Earth Immortal Realm experts.

It was precisely because of that peerless general sitting in town that no one in the world dared to refute. Those different-surnamed kings and the princes of the Liu clan did not dare to have any dissatisfaction with the imperial court.

However, the Martial Emperor was a pity; because of practicing martial arts and going into devilish obsession, or being plotted against, he finally died at the age of eight hundred.

And after this Martial Emperor, the successive emperors of the imperial court did not have long lifespans, as if this Martial Emperor had exhausted the luck of Liu Han. Among the successive emperors of later generations, there were not many with great talent and bold vision, and there were quite a few who were muddled and incompetent.

This consumed too much of the power of the Liu Han imperial court.

By now, because of the rebellion of the relatives of the emperor before, the power of Liu Han was consumed quite a bit again, and a Liu Han clan elder of the town-state level was also seriously injured because of that rebellion of the relatives of the emperor. Since then, Liu Han has lost another town-state powerhouse.

It is also because of this that the imperial court's control over the local areas has become so weak.

After all, the center lacks the supreme, the deterrence to the local areas has declined, and a series of weaknesses have made the power of the imperial court weaker and weaker, finally forming the current situation where it belongs to the imperial court on the surface, but in fact the local areas have already achieved autonomy.

Xuzhou is no exception. Xuzhou is also ten thousand miles away from the Divine Capital Luoyang. Perhaps for those cultivators, it doesn't take long.

But if it is truly a large army, even if that kind of elite travels one hundred miles a day, it will take more than half a year.

Of course, in the Great Qin era, one hundred miles a day was nothing. Great Qin's pool roads had special chariots for transporting troops. These chariots were built with cultivator runes and could travel long distances quickly, with a speed faster than warhorses.

Now Liu Han naturally does not have this ability.

This is also one of the reasons why the imperial court lost control of the local areas.

Xuzhou, as one of the most prosperous large states in the southeast of the imperial court, is naturally also a place where families gather. In Xuzhou, there are quite a few families.

Even top-tier families in the world are not few.

The Mi family is a merchant family and has also been listed among the families. In this era, there is no hidden rule that merchants are low.

Because merchant families also have powerful strength, as long as there is powerful strength, no one dares to underestimate them. Even if these merchant families do not have people serving as officials, the local areas dare not underestimate them.

Of course, the Mi family naturally cannot just be a pure merchant family. Since they have come forward, then there must be disciples who want to serve as officials.

So in these thousand years, the Mi family has also produced officials at the level of the Three Excellencies.

The Liu Han imperial court has existed for thousands of years, and one or two Three Excellencies actually don't count for much. Even the Four Generations and Three Excellencies cannot become the standard for being listed as a first-class family.

After all, many first-class families have produced dozens of Three Excellencies. The Yang family of Liu Han has produced a hundred officials at the level of the Three Excellencies, and even once held the position of Minister of Works for ten consecutive times, which can be said to be infinitely glorious, even more powerful than the other top-tier family, the Yuan family.

As a top-tier family, the Yang family has mostly reached the limit of civil officials.

Of course, the evaluation of a family is not only based on officials in office, but also on the strength of the family. If the family does not have powerhouses sitting in town, it will only slowly decline.

Such families are not non-existent.

Thousands of years of time, for those families that have not given birth to Spirit Refining Realm experts or have given birth to Spirit Refining Realm experts but died because of accidents, without such powerhouses sitting in town, they will only slowly fall.

The boundaries between families are cruel, and even very tragic; there will even be great wars between them.

There were once two families fighting, and even one Spirit Refining Realm expert died because of this. The winning side can plunder the other family's inheritance and foundation.

Liu Han is not Great Qin. Great Qin's control over local scholars and families was very strict, but in Liu Han, it is different.

And this is also the calculation of the Liu Han imperial court. Only if the boundaries between them are fierce can the Liu clan sit firmly in this position.

However, it is a pity that they underestimated the families. The families indeed saw the sinister intentions of the Liu clan, but they could also use this to go further, and at the same time, they became more alienated from the imperial court. ===== CHAPTER 1207 =====

Yet unfortunately, they underestimated the noble clans. The noble clans indeed saw the sinister intentions of the Liu family, but they could also use this to advance themselves further, while at the same time becoming even more alienated from the imperial court.