Chapter 1066

After entering Jingcheng, Pan Yun parted ways with them.

The third prince noticed that Seeing Miao Zhen was also gone, and asked Miao He: "Where is your senior sister?"

Miao He: "My senior sister has her own matters to attend to; you only hired me and Tao Yanbai as interpreters—she isn't your subordinate."

The third prince frowned slightly; he didn't understand why his elder brother hadn't hired the smarter Seeing Miao Zhen as interpreter, but chose Miao He and Tao Yanbai instead.

He looked around, and before him stretched the splendor of Jingcheng; he couldn't help feeling envious.

He had thought Chang'an and Luoyang were already prosperous, but Jingcheng surpassed both—tall buildings with painted beams, crowds teeming like threads, goods dazzlingly abundant; half the things he saw were unfamiliar.

No wonder Yixian yearned southward, seeking to restore the glory of the former Yuan; the Golden Family had long dreamed of unifying the world and reviving their splendor.

The lands held by Great Ming were simply too prosperous, too rich in resources.

Officials from Honglu Temple came to meet them.

Lately, envoys from various grassland tribes had been arriving one after another; they were well-practiced in reception and directly led them to the guesthouse.

This time, the celebration for the State Preceptor's birthday was even more lively than the last one for the Emperor, so Honglu Temple had prepared several additional mansions as guesthouses.

Envoys from the grassland tribes were lodged in two adjacent mansions, with Imperial Guards stationed outside and low-ranking Honglu Temple officials inside to prevent disturbances.

There were eighteen grassland tribes, each sending twenty envoys; seven tribes were represented by their chieftains in person, while eleven were led by the chieftains' sons—their princes.

The imperial court had summoned them specifically to celebrate the State Preceptor's birthday as a pretext; the real purpose was to intimidate and appease them, to keep them in line and prevent trouble.

Relations between both sides were no longer as before; Great Ming was no longer the Great Ming of old, and the Emperor was no longer the Emperor of old—both sides should show mutual respect;

This was intimidation.

Appeasement meant that the grasslands were cold and barren; whenever extreme snowstorms struck, herders suffered.

Under heaven, all land belongs to the Son of Heaven; all people are his subjects. The Emperor deeply grieved for his subjects, so if our shared goal is the welfare of the grassland people, we ought to cooperate for mutual benefit.

As long as they obeyed him, the Emperor would ensure they had enough to eat and wear, and even in snowstorms, they would not freeze or starve.

Once all grassland envoys had arrived, the Emperor gathered them together for a meeting.

Afterwards, the Emperor convened a court session on grassland development, inviting the envoys to attend, and finalized several measures targeting the grasslands.

The envoys didn't fully understand, but they knew the court had opened up trade—allowing grassland goods into the Central Plains and Central Plains goods into the grasslands;

Even more, they planned to establish village schools, veterinary stations, and workshops on the grasslands.

"Workshops on the grasslands?"

The Emperor smiled and nodded: "The grasslands have abundant cattle and sheep—not only for meat, but their wool and hides have other uses; besides, there are various minerals and medicinal herbs that can be mined."

"Of course, iron and copper mines across the realm belong to the state and are mined by the court—but mining requires labor; surplus labor from the grasslands can work in the workshops, earning money to offset part of the risk from natural disasters in herding."

One tribal chieftain couldn't help laughing: "Iron mines? On the grasslands?"

He chuckled: "Your Majesty, what joke is this? The grasslands have only grass and water—where would iron mines come from?"

If there were iron mines on the grasslands, why would they bother smuggling iron tools from the Central Plains?

The Emperor said: "Whether they exist or not, what if they do? That's the Ministry of Works' concern. The borders of the three northern tributary prefectures have already been demarcated; I hope you will cooperate with the court in fulfilling your duties and build the grasslands together with Kuang Ye. One day, the grasslands will be as prosperous as the Central Plains."

How could that ever be possible?

The tribal chieftains thought: there were barely any arable lands on the grasslands; they needed to trade cattle and sheep with the Central Plains for grain, tea, salt, and cloth—how many cattle and sheep would they need to raise to suffice?

They believed that unless they moved to the Central Plains, they could never be as prosperous as the Central Plains.

But now, under someone else's roof, they had to bow; they decided to agree—for now.

Simply put, what they had seen since entering the Central Plains had utterly surprised them.

The wealth and strength of the Central Plains had also surprised them.

In fact, even now, the envoys from each tribe were still puzzled: how had Great Ming lost to Yixian back then?

They had sent troops to that battle, and most of the envoys present today had participated in it.

Even they themselves were confused.

"How exactly did Yixian win that battle—and capture the Emperor of Great Ming?"

"Who knows? That was the Central Route's doing; I was with the Western Army then."

"I was with the Eastern Army; when I heard the news, I was stunned—the Eastern Route was hard to fight, and I lost three battles in a row…"

"The Western Route was tough too. Strange—only the Central Route, facing dozens of tens of thousands of imperial reinforcements, not only won, but captured the late Emperor."

"Shh, don't say more—there are palace attendants secretly watching us."

A well-informed envoy glanced and lowered his voice: "Those are people from the Empress Dowager's palace—we killed her son. Will she seek revenge?"

"Empress Dowager? Isn't the Emperor the Empress Dowager's son?"

"Tsk, fool—the imperial family has two Empress Dowagers; one is the late Emperor's mother."

"Before coming, I was terrified, fearing the Emperor would avenge his elder brother—that this banquet might be a Hongmen Feast. But after three straight days of meetings, it seems the Emperor truly wants to pacify us; under these circumstances, he absolutely won't kill us."

The third prince, young and from Tie Liangguti, a small city in the far west, had barely spoken these three days, merely listening; now he couldn't help speaking up: "That's right—I also think the court doesn't intend to kill us."

He paused, then whispered: "I think we can't defeat them. Do you know the court has a telegraph machine that can transmit messages over a thousand li?"

"I know! I've seen it—but I don't know if it's real."

Someone doubted it was fake: "How could such a thing exist? Maybe they're just putting on a show to scare us."

"But since crossing the pass, everywhere we've gone, people have been queuing orderly to send and receive messages—how could that be fake?"

"What's impossible? The Great Ming has so many people; they can easily gather ten or twenty people anywhere and put on a play for us. Han people's hearts are twisted and cunning—we must be cautious."

This envoy's suspicion quickly stirred doubt in others' hearts; they exchanged glances, all beginning to wonder.

At that very moment, the Ministry of War in the imperial palace received an urgent telegraph.

The telegraph operator immediately delivered the translated message; the Left Vice Minister of War sprinted into the palace and interrupted the small court session: "Your Majesty, Jianzhou Garrison reports urgent news: Japan has invaded Korea; Korea has lost three cities. King Li Yi has submitted a petition for aid, and Jianzhou Garrison has forwarded it on his behalf!"

Zhu Qiyu frowned: "Why has Japan launched another invasion against its neighbor?"