Chapter 672

Little Wei Yuan sat upright on the couch, closing his eyes to rest, while his spiritual sense was in a small hall of the earthly paradise, flipping through the intelligence, battle reports, and data gathered from various places.

In the Guest-Welcoming Town in the northeast of the Azure Void, an imperial envoy was reading an imperial decree. The Dao Foundation warrior kneeling to receive the decree had no expression, listened to the decree, and then took out a bag of immortal silver and stuffed it over. The envoy was originally unhappy because he didn't see Little Wei Yuan, but at this moment, after weighing the weight of the immortal silver, he was immediately beaming, and his displeasure was swept away.

And the decree appeared in the earthly paradise at the same time, presented in front of Little Wei Yuan.

Under the main peak, a new town had been built. The small town was built specifically for the cultivators of the Taichu Palace, and everywhere there were spiritual flowers and spiritual trees, with immortal mist curling. As soon as one entered the city gate, the long street underfoot was paved with cloud mica, and twelve pairs of white jade pillars with chi patterns stood by the road, with emerald-like vines wrapped around the pillars, and bowl-sized spiritual flowers blooming on the vines. This flower looked like Xu Henshui's immortal orchid, with petals as thin as cicada wings, releasing spiritual Qi day and night as they opened and closed.

In the town, the markets and pavilions were densely packed, and shark-silk curtains hung between the flying eaves and bucket arches. Once dyed by the sunset, it was as if the clouds and rainbows of the thirty-three heavens had been cut into window gauze. Every dusk, a continuous sound of jade chimes came from the center of the town, and just by listening for a few moments, one's enlightenment could be refined by several levels. Except for the lack of floating peaks, the scenery was not much worse than the main mountain of the Taichu Palace.

Going further inside, there was a Zhizheng Academy standing in the city, with the main hall currently empty, and three side rooms on each side, with signs hanging at the doors: Agriculture, Spiritual Medicine, Alchemy Tripod, Military Equipment...

Among them, Military Equipment was particularly large, occupying two side rooms, and inside were placed many tables, with different labels on the tables, which were Armor (Steel), Armor (Void), Firearm, Gunpowder, Ammunition, Cannon, War Chariot, Military Horse, and so on.

Cultivators entered the Political Affairs Academy one by one, and the official document envelopes in their hands were written with content categories, such as Cannon, Agriculture, etc. The cultivators entered the Political Affairs Academy and placed the official documents on the tables with the same labels.

The Dao Foundation warrior sitting behind the table would open the letter to read, and then put the read letter into the box waiting for approval. Every once in a while, someone would come to collect the box and move it to another small courtyard.

In that courtyard sat dozens of officials, half of whom were Little Wei Yuan's Dao Foundation warriors, and half were human officials of the Azure Void. The Dao Foundation warriors checked the content of the sent official documents respectively, found the approval in the earthly paradise, and then wrote down the approval.

The human officials then conducted a review, and those they felt had no problems were sent down for processing, while those with problems were sent to the third courtyard.

That courtyard was much smaller, and there were fewer people. There were three officials with rich political experience sitting in town all year round. Now, the one sitting in the main hall inside was actually Yuan Qingyan.

As early as when the Kingdom of Rain attacked, Yuan Qingyan had already resigned from the imperial court and joined the Azure Void, and had repeatedly gone to the battlefield in the middle of the tense war situation. Although his Dharma Form supernatural power was limited, he was a Dharma Form cultivator after all, so he still made some contributions.

Yuan Qingyan joined at the time of the Azure Void's crisis, not adding flowers to the embroidery after the Kingdom of Rain was defeated, so Little Wei Yuan looked at him highly and placed him in the newly established Political Affairs Academy, specifically responsible for handling controversial agendas.

Yuan Qingyan had been an official for decades and had been in charge of one side for some time, so he was familiar with handling these political affairs.

Under this new system, Little Wei Yuan didn't need to come forward much, but the Dao Foundation warriors scattered everywhere poured information into the earthly paradise, and after preliminary screening and processing by the earthly paradise, it was sent to him.

Little Wei Yuan spent most of his time approving in the earthly paradise, and only major matters would he come forward personally.

At this moment, after Little Wei Yuan read the Prince of Jin's decree, he exited from the earthly paradise and headed to the small courtyard where the Yuan Consort lived. The Prince of Fu was practicing sword in the courtyard, stabbing fiercely at a straw man. Seeing Little Wei Yuan appear, he was startled, and the wooden sword in his hand almost fell to the ground.

Little Wei Yuan shook his head slightly. The inheritance of the Jin royal family was not bad, and the Body Forging period had no difficulty, so the royal inheritance was not much different from the Taichu Palace. At this time, the Prince of Fu did not go to meditate and cultivate, but ran out to practice sword, definitely treating the straw man as himself.

Little Wei Yuan didn't expose it, just acted as if he didn't see the Prince of Fu, and walked straight into the main house, seeing the Yuan Consort sitting alone by the window, looking at a storybook.

"Where is Feng Tingyu?"

The Yuan Consort said, "Sister Bao invited her to eat."

"Why do they eat together every day?"

The Yuan Consort smiled lightly and said, "Ask yourself!"

Little Wei Yuan hurriedly said, "Let's talk about business first. The Prince of Jin sent a decree this morning, summoning you and the Prince of Chu back to the capital immediately, but didn't mention the Prince of Fu."

The Yuan Consort thought for a while and said, "If the Prince of Fu is not mentioned, then this decree was issued by the Crown Prince, just using the King's seal. I have only been out for this short time, and he can no longer issue decrees according to his own will?"

"What happened to the King?"

The Yuan Consort sighed lightly and said, "He stays in the Jin Gang Zen Temple outside the city all day, isolated from news, so how would I know what happened to him? But not long ago, he mentioned it to me once; it seemed that because of something, there was an accident, and he lost a lot of life span. Could it be that his life is exhausted? But it still doesn't seem right."

Little Wei Yuan said, "If his life is exhausted, the Crown Prince just needs to wait with peace of mind; there is no need to be so eager to seize power. Perhaps there is a hidden story in this. If all power has fallen into the hands of the Crown Prince, then you will definitely be in danger if you go back."

"Why not stay here with me and wait until the situation is clear before talking. The Crown Prince should not be able to do anything to me. The Lu family and I are separated by the Xu family, and they have to deal with Northern Liao, so they are too busy to take care of themselves. So the only one who can come forward is the Xu family. The Xu family has fought with me so many times and has never won. So you don't have to be afraid."

The Yuan Consort was silent, quietly looking out the window.

Little Wei Yuan faintly felt that the atmosphere was a bit wrong and said, "You don't really want to go back, do you?"

The Yuan Consort sighed and said, "I know you might feel a bit uncomfortable, but when I first arrived at the Jin Palace, I was very affectionate with the King, and over the years, he has treated me quite well. Later, his pressure grew, his constraints became more and more, and some things happened, and even his temperament changed greatly. After the Jin Gang Zen Temple appeared, we drifted further and further apart."

"But in those years, he really wanted to achieve something and wanted to be a wise king. It's just that he couldn't help himself, and many things were not for him to decide."

"Now that his life span is about to end, his followers have betrayed him, and his cultivation has dissipated, even moving is difficult. And at this time, I'm afraid there isn't even anyone around him who can speak. I intend to accompany him to finish this last road, which can be considered as having a beginning and an end."

"But you..."

"Don't worry about me; the Crown Prince doesn't dare to do anything to me either. Don't forget that I have another identity. Father just doesn't want to see the Jin state controlled by me, but that doesn't mean he wants to see me bullied by others. In Father's eyes, the great cause is first, and face is second."

"What if those people come again?"

The Yuan Consort said, "Leave it to fate."

Walking out of the Yuan Consort's courtyard, Little Wei Yuan's mood was exceptionally gloomy.

Along with the Prince of Jin's decree, there was also a letter requesting the purchase of ten thousand sets of breastplates, and it was stated that the immortal silver would be delivered within three days, hoping that Little Wei Yuan would arrange shipment within five days.

This letter changed the old habit of vague wording in official documents, leaving three sentences for every one said. Not only did it clearly state the payment and delivery time, but it also stated that the breastplates would be given to the Prince of Ying in the north.

This letter was so abnormal that Little Wei Yuan tasted that something was wrong. If it weren't for the urgent war in the north, with the character of those lords in the Western Jin officialdom, they would never have written so clearly.

Little Wei Yuan was in a bad mood at this moment and needed something to relieve it, so he came to the target range of the weapon forging workshop, ordered people to take the breastplates stored in the warehouse, and stood them at ten zhang, thirty zhang, and fifty zhang respectively. Subsequently, he used the firearms and flying sword guns of various periods equipped by the Azure Void to bombard them in turn.

Soon the test results came out. The breastplates could effectively resist firearms at fifty zhang, but it was hard to say at thirty zhang, and more than half were pierced by firearms. The flying sword gun could resist from a hundred zhang away, but would be pierced within a hundred zhang.

And the new type of revolving flying sword cannon was extremely powerful and could pierce ordinary breastplates from three hundred zhang away.

After testing the firearms, Little Wei Yuan ordered people to bring Northern Liao bows and crossbows for testing. The final result was that the Northern Liao swift arrows were equivalent to firearms in power, and the heavy arrows were equivalent to flying sword guns, and their range was much farther than firearms.

After the test, Little Wei Yuan called up the breastplate design drawing and said, "Immediately produce a batch of new breastplates using ordinary steel, with a thickness three millimeters thinner than the original design, ensuring that our mainstream firearms can pierce them at fifty zhang. Alright, those are the requirements; hurry up and produce them; produce ten thousand sets within five days."

Yu Zhizhuo next to him said, "Ten thousand sets are no problem; we can produce five thousand breastplates every day now. It's just that making them thinner actually increased the difficulty; is it necessary?"

"The Prince of Jin has lost power, so half of what is said there can only be believed. Who knows if they are buying breastplates to fight Northern Liao or to fight us. So I must ensure that this batch of breastplates sold can be pierced by our ordinary soldiers' firearms within fifty zhang."

Yu Zhizhuo nodded and went to adjust the ingredients and the parameters of the iron forging machine.

At this time, two more latest intelligence reports were sent to the Political Affairs Academy. The Dao Foundation warriors read them, which was equivalent to Little Wei Yuan reading them.

One was a secret letter sent from Western Jin, sent by Li Weisheng. The letter revealed that the Prince of Jin had an accident, with only three years of life left, and then the Lu family suddenly made trouble, supporting the Crown Prince to seize power.

Now the Prince of Jin had been completely sidelined, and all political affairs were just going through the motions in the court, and sometimes they were too lazy to even go through the motions, such as the court meeting the day before yesterday which lasted less than half an hour.

Although the Crown Prince occasionally stayed in the royal palace at night, he usually discussed matters in his own mansion, maintaining a superficial decency. The letter also mentioned that the war situation in the north was unfavorable, but specific war news was strictly blockaded, and even high-ranking officials like Li Weisheng did not know what exactly had happened.

At the end of the letter, Little Wei Yuan was told to plan early and prepare thoroughly. As for what to prepare, Li Weisheng did not say clearly.

This letter showed a lot of sentiment.

As for Sun Chaoen, his qualifications were still shallow, and he couldn't climb into the court for the time being, so he couldn't help with this matter. But Li Weisheng could write this letter, and there should be Sun Chaoen's credit behind it.

Just after reading this letter, Little Wei Yuan was still a bit puzzled. Logically speaking, with the Taichu Palace's northern mountain gate in the north, the Liao tribe definitely wouldn't dare to go too deep. This still couldn't explain the decline of the Western Jin national fortune.

At this time, Little Wei Yuan could only wait for news and handle the Zhao state's affairs first. The other intelligence report sent was a detailed map of the Bishui domain; the spies under Cui Yu's command finally completed the work of surveying the terrain.

Now the Bishui inner city was built, and the outer city was eighty percent built, with nearly ten million taels of immortal silver smashed into it. Little Wei Yuan felt that it was time to beat up the kids.

(End of chapter)