Chapter 1134: Return to Liangzhou

This stretch of the journey was, for Xie Ming, absolutely the most agonizing stretch of his life...

Although, this stretch of the road was not walked by him.

But the entire scene was silent, and even the ceremonial music had stopped.

Preposterous!

Preposterous!

He actually dared not to follow the ancestral laws and not lead the assembled officials in dancing!

He was defying him, he was showing contempt for imperial power!

The others also took a deep breath.

Contempt for imperial power.

If this were the Longyan of the past, this charge would have been enough to have Liu Zheng's nine generations executed.

However...

Longyan had changed.

Longyan had truly changed; Longyan was no longer the Longyan of the past. All the ills of that feudal dynasty were being slowly cleared away.

Kill him!

Do something!

Xie Ming began to despair.

Liu Zheng would not even kneel.

He just stood there like that, holding the jade treasure up with both hands.

This jade treasure was naturally to be received by the Grand Eunuch of the Inner Court at this moment. Yet, facing this overbearing Liu Zheng, he did not even know whether he should go and receive it...

The scene became awkward.

Dong Shuyu's expression also changed drastically.

Where are the people!

Where are the people they arranged! Why did they not strike! This is not right! This is not right!

Sadly, she had to admit that the two of them, mother and son, were becoming increasingly powerless in their control over this Longyan.

The rise of Liu Zheng's power was already unstoppable.

Sorrow, powerlessness, desolation.

Liu Zheng just stood there for several minutes, holding the jade treasure.

"All officials, present the treasure!"

Seeing no reaction from Xie Ming's side, Liu Zheng was becoming a bit impatient.

Following that, he let out a shout.

This immediately caused the civil and military officials throughout the hall to shout along with him.

"All officials, present the treasure!"

"All officials, present the treasure!"

Compared to the mountain-shaking, sea-roaring "Long live, long live, ten thousand years" from just a moment ago, this "All officials, present the treasure" now carried an extra layer of coldness and sharpness; the feigned respect from before seemed to have vanished completely. The collapse of imperial power was a historical inevitability. Xie Ming almost burst into tears on the spot.

It's over.

At this moment, he truly admitted that imperial power was over.

The Xie Family was over!

Zhu Zhen, the Prince of Qin, and the others were even more so; their awe of imperial power and their awe of the Xie Family had completely vanished with the passing of Xie Tianyao. This was the inevitability of history; choosing Xie Ming in the first place was intended only to treat him as a puppet. Constitutional monarchy, then... let these people of the Xie Family be mascots forever.

The civil and military officials held the same thought.

"Receive..."

In the end, Xie Ming could not help but cry out.

With a sobbing tone, he shouted loudly.

"Receive!"

The Grand Eunuch also hurried down and took the jade treasure from Liu Zheng's hands.

Then, he handed this jade treasure to the Emperor.

With this, all the procedures for the new emperor's enthronement were completed.

At this point, the civil and military officials also learned.

They followed Liu Zheng and began to stop kneeling.

"Long live, long live, ten thousand years!"

"Long live, long live, ten thousand years to our Emperor!"

While their mouths shouted "long live," they no longer had to perform the kowtow ritual.

Thus.

Longyan began a new chapter, and the feudal dynasty that had ruled Longyan for thousands of years existed in name only.

A brand-new, increasingly powerful constitutional monarchy.

The Hongzhi era of Longyan officially began.

Xie Ming truly became a spiritual symbol in Longyan, which is to say,

a mascot.

The following few days were the grand funeral of Xie Tianyao, which we will not elaborate on further; by and large, it was not much different from the funeral of Xie Fang not long ago, only the specifications were higher. Having sent off Xie Tianyao, that group of old men from back then truly surrendered their hearts to Liu Zheng. What else was there that could not be lost?

After all, if one can gain more after losing, why not be happy to do so?

Following that, it was time for the election of the Lower House Councilors.

Throughout all of Longyan, a wave of fervor began to rise.

Constitutional monarchy, imperial power constrained; the people began to stand up and express their own opinions. The imperial court could hear their opinions, could study their opinions, and could adopt their opinions.

Such a country, who wouldn't love it?

The redistribution of territories.

This matter was also proceeding in an orderly fashion.

Of course...

These Feudatory Kings were not stupid. Looking at this Chief Councilor Liu now, who was already the supreme power in Longyan, naturally, no one would be foolish enough to want to contend for Liangzhou... Therefore, this task went quite smoothly, and they were also willing. Those from Youzhou went to Pingzhou, those from Pingzhou went to Jingchu, and those from Jingchu went to Wudi.

With this, the power structure shifted once again.

This also meant that the power of the Cabinet was elevated once more.

Therefore, after all the swapping, Liangzhou and Liaodong were, in fact, still Liu Zheng's.

Of course, looking at the big picture, now the entire Longyan was under Liu Zheng's command, and he would not care about these trivial matters.

When all of this settled down.

Liu Zheng was finally able to get away, planning to return to Liangzhou...

Good heavens.

In the blink of an eye, in a few more days, his own younger brother would be one month old.

Counting it up, he really hadn't left Jinghua for a long time...

Nowadays, Dong Shuyu and Xie Ming were completely unable to stir up any trouble. In fact, it was a good thing for Liu Zheng to leave temporarily at this time. Recently, he had become a bit "carried away." Holding the Tiger Tally of the Duqi Duwei in his hands, he had carried out many iron-fisted actions. Of course, this was a special period, and such centralization of power was very necessary. But if he continued to stay in the Capital, the situation would be different. First, human greed was surely infinite; Liu Zheng could not even guarantee that if he held this position of Chief Councilor for too long, wielding such power and having his word be law, he wouldn't truly get carried away himself. Second, others would certainly worry—worry that even though he was not the Emperor, he was exercising the Emperor's special privileges, which was not a good thing for a constitutional monarchy.

Power still needed to return to the Cabinet and the law.

Therefore, Liu Zheng handed the Duqi and Duwei over to the Cabinet.

He, on the other hand, took the people around him and began his journey home.

"Chief Councilor Liu, this grand gift must be delivered to your esteemed father, it must, it must!"

"Chief Councilor Liu, help this Mandarin convey congratulations to your esteemed father!"

"Chief Councilor Liu!"

When Liu Zheng was leaving, he hadn't expected that the people seeing him off would be so lively.

Including Zhu Zhen, the Prince of Qin, the Prince of Yan, and so on and so forth, they had all come.

Each and every one of them came by Horse Carriage, bringing a mountain of gifts; these gifts were naturally for Liu Zheng's younger brother, Liu Cong.

"This is too polite..."

Liu Zheng chuckled.

But their kindness was hard to refuse.

He was, after all, the current Chief Councilor!

Zhu Zhen and the Prince of Qin, in terms of rank, were both below him!

His own younger brother...

The second son of the Xiliang King!

This was no ordinary status!

Good things were all being brought out; if they weren't good, they certainly couldn't be presented.

It wasn't just the Prince of Qin, Zhu Zhen, and the Prince of Yan; other officials in the Capital were naturally the same. This opportunity to curry favor with Liu Zheng could not be missed.

Liu Zheng originally didn't want them.

Xie Chan arrived.

Seeing this scene, she began to accept them with a smile.

Gifts... one cart, two carts, three carts...

Since others were giving them, why not take them?

Besides, these were for her little brother-in-law! You, Liu Zheng, by what right do you make decisions for the little brother-in-law!

Liu Zheng rolled his eyes.

The two weren't even married yet, and she was already acting like the lady of the house. Originally, their marriage had been decided long ago, but unfortunately, this year, Xie Chan had to observe a one-year mourning period for Xie Tianyao, and they could only marry after a year.

But everyone knew.

The current Xie Chan was already Liu Zheng's legitimate wife.

Liu Zheng didn't bother with her... as long as she was happy.

"Set off!"

"Going home!"

"Back to Liangzhou!"

The grand, sweeping procession boarded the Train in Jinghua.

Because it was Liu Zheng returning to Liangzhou, the entire Train served Liu Zheng's family.

Watching the scenery receding outside the window, Liu Zheng took a deep breath.

It really had been a long time since he had gone back...

It had been almost over a year, right...

Since he last came to Jinghua for Xie Tianyao's birthday, he had begun drifting outside. This drifting had lasted for over a year. Now Xie Tianyao was dead, a new Emperor had taken the throne, and he himself had been busy for so long before he could finally return...

Saint Petersburg.

Menshikov, looking at the endless supply of grain before his eyes, was about to go crazy with joy!

"Hahahaha... Good, good!"

"Good, good!"

Qian Yonggui nodded and bowed at his side.

Bright white millet! All of it was this year's new harvest!

To corrupt this Menshikov, the Liangzhou Chamber of Commerce had bled heavily this time, delivering so much grain at an extremely low price... This was enough for Menshikov to earn a huge sum!

Menshikov was very happy.

Recently, what the Tsarist Russia Army lacked most was military provisions!

Peter the Great had already roared about this many times, but those lords were all hiding their supplies. The seemingly smooth Western Regions battlefield of Dragon Flame had fallen into a bitter struggle because the Northwest Allied Forces of Dragon Flame had suddenly risen up. Peter the Great was furious and reinforced the troops by another one hundred thousand!

One hundred thousand!

With one hundred thousand troops setting out, the grain and fodder would be stretched thin. This was the biggest problem for Tsarist Russia.

And what made them collapse was this.

Following the invasion of Dragon Flame, the grain imported by Tsarist Russia was also being schemed against by others... First, the grain that had been imported from the Indian Continent all along suddenly disappeared. India, which had changed from Mughal to being controlled by the East India Company, unilaterally tore up the grain import orders between the two countries—Mughal was gone, so why couldn't they tear it up?

This left Tsarist Russia dumbfounded.

Everyone from top to bottom was enraged.

If it weren't for the fact that the army was currently fighting against Dragon Flame, they would have loved to march south in one go and seize this Indian Continent!

Grain!

Grain had become a huge problem!

And in Europe, because of the blood feud with the Ottoman, although they had taken Sochi Port into their hands, countries like Poland and Sweden had also tightened their grain exports due to the Little Ice Age.

This left Tsarist Russia completely panicked.

Menshikov could imagine...

How happy Peter the Great would be once he brought out this batch of grain!

He could gain even more of the economic benefits he wanted from it!

"Good, good, good, Shopkeeper Qian, you truly are a good friend of our Tsarist Russia!"

Menshikov could not help but praise him again.

His men had just inspected it, and there was absolutely no problem with this grain! There was even less chance of it being poisoned grain.

He could already confirm that this Shopkeeper Qian was definitely not on the same side as that Liu Zheng! How could there be any reason to sell such eye-catching grain to an enemy nation at a time like this?

There was none!

Therefore, he concluded that this Qian Yonggui was absolutely a person from the political rivals of Liu Zheng within the Dragon Flame Nation.

Suddenly, he began to trust this Qian Yonggui.

"Good, good, good, I have prepared a grand feast today, I hope Shopkeeper Qian will do me the honor!"

Having been sent so much money, how could he not be happy?

Hearing this, Qian Yonggui finally felt relieved in his heart.

This was a good start...

On the surface, he hurriedly nodded and bowed in agreement, but in his heart, he gave a cold laugh.

The greedy Menshikov would sooner or later pay the price for this...

Whom the gods wish to destroy, they first make mad.

This saying was not false at all.

His goal this time was to accelerate the expansion of Menshikov's ambition, step by step!

To crush the enemy from within Tsarist Russia!

As for this grain...

It must be said, what Dragon Flame did not lack right now was grain!

With grain piled up like mountains, he could haul away as much as he wanted!

And so.

The two of them, each with their own thoughts, arrived at the Menshikov mansion, getting along harmoniously.

"A fine place!"

Seeing the grand and incredibly luxurious Menshikov mansion, Qian Yonggui praised it sincerely.

Menshikov looked proud and laughed, "One must have strength, otherwise, Shopkeeper Qian, why would you do business with me?"

The two looked at each other and laughed.

Qian Yonggui chuckled, "Marshal, you are indeed the most powerful person in Tsarist Russia! This is vision, this is true vision! If you ask me, even if the position of Tsar were given to you now, Marshal, you might not even look at it!"

"Hahahaha!"

In a country like Tsarist Russia, discussing the monarch was a very normal thing.

Menshikov did not mind hearing this.

The Tsar?

A sharp glint flashed in his eyes.

Wasn't Peter's Empress something he had already played with? Moreover, as long as he wanted, she would come when summoned and leave when dismissed!

In Tsarist Russia, who else could be more powerful than him?