Chapter 703

Wuguo, Wu Tie's country.

Taking Lao Tie, Pei Feng, Wu Jin, Wu Yin, and Wu Tong as representatives, these are truly his close confidants who handle military affairs. Lao Tie heads the Military Department as Left Chancellor, while Wu Jin, Wu Yin, and Wu Tong assist him, commanding the Wuguo army. Using the Invincible Army as the framework, they fill it with the former army of the Great Martial God State, newly forming the Heavenly Martial Army.

In the Heavenly Martial Army, officers of all ranks and all the big and small officials under the Military Department are filled by youths of the Wu clan; with the Wu clan's elders like Wu Yu planning behind the scenes, the entire Heavenly Martial Army is firmly under Wu Tie's control.

Pei Feng serves as Grand Commander of the Capital's Soldiers and Horses Bureau, commanding the Imperial Guard, with the Five Elements Essences as the core force, and also oversees the secret intelligence organ directly under Wu Tie, the 'Secret Martial Guard'.

Lao Bai, having become a proper and legitimate member, now serves as deputy commander of the Secret Martial Guard.

As for gathering information, surveillance, eavesdropping, even assassination and petty thievery, who could surpass these quite talented rat‑like scoundrels?

Mo Zhangwang, Tie Dajian, Yan Hanlu, Shi Fei, Lu Ji and other old friends of Wu Tie also all joined the Secret Martial Guard; each has his own strengths, Wu Tie also feels quite reassured by them, they share a common secret, and aside from Lao Tie, Pei Feng, and his own brothers, they are the ones Wu Tie trusts most.

For such intelligence organs, it's only natural to employ those one can trust.

Taking Huang Lang as representative, these are the elders who have followed Wu Tie since the outset in Daze State. Huang Lang serves as Right Chancellor, overseeing the Ministries of Personnel, Rites, Agriculture, Household, Works, and Punishments, etc., heading the civil officials. The Lan and Ximen clans, among other great and small aristocratic families who submitted to Wu Tie during the Yu State period, have also been placed under Huang Lang's faction, serving as various civil officials.

Worth mentioning is Wu Tie's stalwart lackey Li Ergou, who shifted from a martial background to a civil post, becoming the head of the Ministry of Punishments.

Li Ergou, who came from the market streets, knows all the tricks of the street toughs and ruffians; by heading the Ministry of Punishments and establishing its constabulary system, he maintains Wuguo's public order, truly a case of employing people according to their abilities.

To deal with those law‑breaking ruffians, only someone even more cunning, ruthless, shameless, and thick‑skinned—a great scoundrel, a great ruffian—will do. Li Ergou is likewise an old man Wu Tie brought all the way from Daze State; he became head of the Ministry of Punishments, yet no one raised any objection.

The newly surrendered Wei aristocratic clans such as Li Xuan'gui and Yuan Qilin are outright newcomers, with no foothold whatsoever in Wu Tie's camp.

But their strength is their foundation.

The foundation of the Wei aristocratic clans is their foundation.

Li Xuan'gui, Yuan Qilin, and even Mo Yun and Ou Yezi—the knowledge in their minds, the civilization they possess—is their foundation.

Although Huang Lang serves as Right Chancellor and the heads of the Ministries of Personnel, Rites, etc., are mostly filled by Wu Tie's longtime aides, the subordinate agencies under each ministry have been largely taken up by the Wei aristocratic clans represented by Li Xuan'gui and Yuan Qilin.

Huang Lang and the others cannot but agree, for solid strength sits right here.

For clans backed by a Divine Realm elder, even if Huang Lang and the others wanted to deliberately suppress them, they would only feel a chill down their spines and be very uneasy.

No matter how reluctant they are to divide many offices among these Wei competitors, the hard strength is there, and Huang Lang and the others can do nothing about it. Fortunately, the Wei aristocratic youths pay attention to the so‑called 'refined scholar' demeanor; they scorn struggles for power and profit, so neither side has clashed over authority.

Thus, intentionally or not, a clever tripartite balance has formed within Wu Tie's Wuguo system.

Lao Tie, Pei Feng and the others control the military, forming their own faction.

Huang Lang and the others hold the chief administrative power, but their foundation is weakest and their strength poorest; they can survive only by absolute loyalty to Wu Tie.

The clans represented by Li Xuan'gui are the strongest, with extremely deep foundations, yet all the Divine Realm elders and half‑step Divine Realm elite clansmen have their lives and deaths entirely in Wu Tie's single thought; aside from loyalty to Wu Tie, they have no other choice.

Conversely, the presence of the Li Xuan'gui clan exerts tremendous pressure on Huang Lang and the others, forcing them to devote themselves wholeheartedly to their duties and to be utterly loyal.

Such a structure is far more stable than the former Great Jin or the present Qingqiu.

In just one day, Huang Lang and the others settled the division of power; then, in a little more than an hour, they confirmed each one's fief and carefully submitted the awarded plan to Wu Tie.

Taking Huang Lang, Li Ergou and the other Daze State elders as representatives, they were all ennobled as third‑rank dukes, each receiving half a prefecture as their fief.

Lao Tie, Wu Jin, Wu Yin, Wu Tong and the others, for having followed Wu Tie onto the battlefield and earned military merit, were all promoted to second‑rank dukes, each receiving one prefecture as their fief.

Li Xuan'gui, Yuan Qilin and the others newly submitted to Wu Tie, but their following him on the duel battlefield also counts as merit. Moreover, their clan power is strong, foundations deep, and their numbers are far greater than those of small‑family origins like Huang Lang and the lone Li Ergou…

Taking all factors into account, the major clans represented by Li Xuan'gui and Yuan Qilin were all made first‑rank dukes, each receiving three prefectures as their fief.

Given the scale of the Wei clans represented by Li Xuan'gui, three prefectures… and moreover, these three prefectures left by the Martial God State are not very developed; as fiefs they yield barely enough to sustain the clanspeople's daily livelihood.

To live as freely and elegantly as they did in Wei before is now impossible.

Unless they can make greater contributions to Wu Tie, achieve greater merit, and obtain more fiefs…

In short, the fief‑award plan worked out by Huang Lang and the others is prudent, leaves room for future promotions, and basically satisfies everyone's present interests.

Wu Tie was also quite pleased with it and immediately agreed to the fief‑award plan.

Following that, Huang Lang and the others proposed a plan to emancipate all the slaves of the Martial God State; it is actually simple—just register all those slaves and turn them into commoners.

Afterwards, residential zones were demarcated, cities and houses built, farmland and basic tools distributed, grassroots officials organized to lead them in normal productive labor, and even guided them to form normal family structures, and so on.

At the same time, the harsh yet crude statutes of the Martial God State were abolished, and the current civil and criminal codes of the Qingqiu Divine State were directly copied over and applied to Wuguo's commoners—this arrangement was considered settled.

These matters are merely a bit tedious to carry out; in fact they are not difficult.

Wu Tie has subdued so many great clans, and with the many Wei aristocratic clans that have submitted, enrolling all their descendants as grassroots officials to replace the Martial God State's administrative system and manage the whole of Wuguo is more than sufficient.

In less than three days, Huang Lang and the others completed the design of Wuguo's basic administrative framework.

Thereafter, picking an auspicious day, Wu Tie erected an altar, went through the motions of offering sacrifices to the gods, and formally proclaimed the founding of Wuguo.