Chapter 428: The First Battle of the Great War

Inside the Yangxin Hall, Li Fei sat alone in his seat reading the 'Battle Report'.

In that great war of the past, although the final victor was the Great Lan Dynasty, the process appeared very humiliating.

For an empire that had dominated the Eastern Continent for over five hundred years, being beaten all the way to the capital in a crushing manner was simply too shameful!

And the reason why they lost so quickly and miserably in the early stages of that battle was not just because the Western Allied Forces caught them off guard and the Great Lan Dynasty was unprepared for the Western Continent's high-tech weapons.

There was another more important reason: the decay of the Great Lan Dynasty itself!

The records Li Fei saw in the 'Battle Report' showed that from the west coast all the way to the foot of Lanling City, there were five provinces and dozens of great cities.

As a result, facing the spearhead of the Western Allied Forces, more than half of the cities fled without a fight or even surrendered directly!

After hundreds of years of peace, the princes, nobles, and local officials were mostly cowards who feared death.

More than half of the local City Guard armies, Inspection Courtyards, and Zhige Courtyards were eating empty pay, lacked training, had poor combat power, and even worse military morale.

Ironically, on the path of the Western Allied Forces, the ones who truly caused them greater damage were the local Jianghu figures, local powerful clans, and noble families.

In order to defend their homes and interests, these people erupted with stronger fighting spirit than the government!

But without unified command, these local forces were just a pile of loose sand and ultimately could not cause any real obstruction to the Western Allied Forces.

When the Western Allied Forces captured a province, the imperial court planned to urgently mobilize the 'Chilin Army' guarding the southwest border.

The Great Lan Dynasty had a total of four Imperial Camp armies of ten thousand scale; besides the Tianlan Iron Cavalry guarding the capital, there was also an Imperial Camp army of over ten thousand in the east, west, and north.

The Chilin Army was one of them, responsible for guarding the southern border and deterring the two major desert nations.

As a result, just when the imperial court planned to mobilize the Chilin Army together with a portion of the southern border army to move north, the two major desert nations in the southern desert sent troops at the same time!

Under such circumstances, neither the Chilin Army nor the southern border army dared to act rashly, and the other two border armies were too far away.

Without trains and cars, the imperial court's troop mobilization speed was very slow, far unable to compare with the Western Allied Forces' marching speed.

So the imperial court could only temporarily organize local manpower and send the Imperial Guard to block the enemy.

At this time, the Great Lan Dynasty still underestimated the combat power of the Western Allied Forces.

They only saw the high-tech weapons used by the Allied Forces and did not discover the experts hidden within the Allied Forces who had not yet made a move.

After the Western Allied Forces easily broke through another province, the army organized by the imperial court also arrived at the front line:

City Guard armies temporarily drawn from five provinces, plus people from local Inspection Courtyards, Zhige Courtyards, and Zhengfa Courtyards, totaling more than 60,000 people.

There were also the defeated troops from the two provinces broken through by the Western Allied Forces and volunteer armies organized spontaneously in various places, totaling more than 20,000 people.

Most importantly, the Imperial Camp armies of the five provinces were also concentrated, totaling more than 7,000 Imperial Camp soldiers!

Of course, these Imperial Camp soldiers could at most form a thousand-man military formation; any larger, and the grade of the evil weapons needed would be different, and the requirements for their own strength and coordination would also be different.

So the Great Lan Dynasty only had four ten-thousand-man-level Imperial Camp armies, which could be broken down into five-thousand-man, three-thousand-man, and thousand-man military formations.

But the local Imperial Camp armies could at most form thousand-man-level military formations.

But even a thousand-man-level military formation was sufficient to rival a Great Grandmaster!

More than 7,000 Imperial Camp soldiers could form 7 thousand-man-level military formations, equivalent to having 7 Great Grandmasters suppressing the formation!

Besides that, there were 100,000 Imperial Guards mobilized from Lanling City, and the two Imperial Guard Commanders leading the army were both Great Grandmasters.

The Zhige Pavilion sent two Vice Pavilion Masters, who were also Great Grandmasters.

The Zhengfa Pavilion sent two Vice Pavilion Masters, who were top-tier True Person cultivators.

Below them were dozens of Pavilion members from the Zhige Pavilion and Zhengfa Pavilion, commanders in the Imperial Guard with Martial Arts Grandmaster cultivation, and other experts.

An army of nearly 200,000 people, with experts like clouds, faced the 150,000 Western Allied Forces!

This was the first large-scale confrontation between the two sides.

And it was precisely this battle that completely made the Great Lan Dynasty realize—the era of cold weapons had passed!

In open terrain, as long as the enemy's cannons fired and a saturation bombardment occurred, the ordinary soldiers would basically lose all morale and begin to collapse and flee.

Any formation or battle tactic in military strategy was useless in the face of such artillery!

As for the Great Lan Dynasty's most proud iron cavalry charge, facing the enemy's heavy machine guns and volley tactics, they also suffered heavy casualties.

The only two things that could pose a threat to the Western Allied Forces were—cultivators and Imperial Camp soldiers.

Among them, the Imperial Camp soldiers were the best!

Compared to individual experts, Imperial Camp soldiers lacked flexibility, and one died for every one lost; it was also very difficult to repair evil weapons if they were damaged, and their ability to fight a protracted war was not as good as individual experts.

But in terms of making a final decision on a large-scale battlefield and influencing the situation of the war, the Imperial Camp soldiers were absolutely the best in the world!

Once the Imperial Camp soldiers forming a thousand-man military formation launched a charge, their speed was faster than a galloping horse, making it difficult for cannons to hit them, and bullets could not break through the evil aura on the outside.

When the Imperial Camp soldiers killed their way into the enemy's formation, it was naturally a massacre!

But Imperial Camp soldiers also had a fatal weakness, which was their numbers.

Once the number of people decreased to a certain level, they could no longer maintain the corresponding level of military formation, and the power of the evil aura would be greatly reduced.

This made Li Fei think of the battle where he had faced the Imperial Camp soldiers head-on.

At that time, he fought against more than fifty Imperial Camp soldiers, and it was indeed true that the further he fought, the lower the combat power of the Imperial Camp soldiers became.

In the records of the booklet in his hand, a thousand-man-level military formation required at least one thousand Imperial Camp soldiers to be activated.

After activation, once the number of Imperial Camp soldiers maintaining the military formation lost more than 20%, the military formation could not be maintained.

That is to say, for a thousand-man-level military formation, once the number of people was lower than 800, the military formation could not be maintained and could only be reduced to a 500-man, 300-man, or 100-man military formation, with combat power constantly decreasing.

Under such circumstances, the seven Imperial Camp armies participating in the battle achieved good results in the early stages, but as the Transcendentals in the Western Allied Forces successively made their moves, the casualties of the Imperial Camp soldiers also began to increase constantly. When the number of people was lower than 800, the combat power of the seven Imperial Camp armies plummeted.

Once the biggest advantage was gone, the defeat of this Great Lan Dynasty army was doomed!

The booklet in Li Fei's hand recorded the number of experts in that Western Allied Force of the past:

More than eighty Marquis-level experts.

Twelve Duke-level experts.

Three Prince-level experts.

At that time, the Great Lan Dynasty did not understand the Prince-level experts of the Western Continent, thinking they were equivalent to Great Grandmasters.

It was only after truly fighting that they discovered the Prince-level experts of the Western Continent were actually a tier stronger than peak Great Grandmasters!

The battle at the level of top experts fell into a disadvantage, and the battle of the bottom-level soldiers also fell into a disadvantage, so the final outcome of this 200,000-strong army of the Great Lan Dynasty was a collapse!

Both Imperial Guard Commanders died in battle, and one Vice Pavilion Master of the Zhige Pavilion also died in battle.

Besides that, dozens of Pavilion members died in battle, and of the more than 7,000 Imperial Camp soldiers, less than one-third escaped!

From the post-war statistics, the casualties on the Great Lan Dynasty side were nearly 70,000, while the casualties of the Western Allied Forces were less than 20,000.

If there hadn't been the Imperial Camp soldiers charging the formation, the casualties of the Western Allied Forces would have been even fewer, and the battle damage ratio would have been even more humiliating!

The result of this battle shocked the court and the public!

The remaining three provinces completely lost the heart to resist; subsequently, the Western Allied Forces drove straight in, breaking through the three provinces without any effort, and killed all the way to the foot of Lanling City.

At this time, the number of Western Allied Forces remained at 120,000, and they were prepared to use bombers that had never been used before!

The battle that followed was recorded in many books and materials:

The 'God of War' Wen Wen Ren Zheng personally led the army, leading ten thousand Tianlan Iron Cavalry to meet the 120,000 Western Allied Forces.

One battle and victory, completely crushing the 120,000 Allied Forces!

The book in Li Fei's hand had a more detailed battle record:

Just like the Eastern Continent did not understand the Western Continent, although the Western Continent had sent people to investigate the situation of the Great Lan Dynasty in detail beforehand, they still did not understand the peak experts of the Eastern Continent and the strongest ten-thousand-man-level military formation.

They thought the peak experts of the Eastern Continent were at the same level as their Prince-level experts, and since there were only three peak experts truly belonging to the Great Lan Dynasty, there were only three Princes in the Allied Forces.

They thought that as long as there were bombers dropping bombs from high altitude, even a ten-thousand-man-level Imperial Camp army could only be cannon fodder.

As a result, after the war started, Wen Wen Ren Zheng fought three Princes alone, killing one on the spot and seriously injuring one!

The ten-thousand-man-level military formation, with the evil aura rushing, could even reach ten thousand meters above the sky!

Airplanes fell one by one, experts were killed, and formations were scattered.

Seeing that defeat was imminent, the Western Allied Forces were like dogs jumping over a wall, choosing to use airplanes to directly bomb Lanling City, attempting to force Wen Wen Ren Zheng to return to defend.

As a result, State Preceptor Xiang Yunshu led a group of True Persons from the Zhengfa Pavilion to fly in the air, solving all the airplanes that came to attack.

At this point, the Western Allied Forces were completely defeated.

When they came, it was a 160,000-strong army; in the end, less than 30,000 returned to the Western Continent alive, and more than half of the Transcendentals who went on the expedition were killed or injured!

Turning to the last page of the book in his hand, Li Fei slowly closed it, feeling somewhat surging with emotion.

He now knew why this book was a first-class secret of the Military Council, because many of the materials recorded inside were very critical.

Putting the booklet in his hand aside, Li Fei picked up other booklets in the wooden box.

These booklets recorded more detailed battle examples of various incidents that happened that year, such as defense battles in certain cities and places, assault battles, etc.

What interested Li Fei were some battle examples of martial arts experts being surrounded and killed recorded therein.

For example, a Dao Foundation martial artist secretly sneaked into the Western Allied Forces' military camp, attempting to assassinate the commander, but after being discovered, was eventually surrounded and killed.

In this battle, there were no Earl-level experts in the Western Allied Forces who could confront this Dao Foundation martial artist head-on; it was by relying on a group of ordinary soldiers and a group of low-level Transcendentals that they surrounded and killed him.

A Dao Foundation martial artist has not yet completely constructed a Dao Foundation; if there is no special core-level transcendent ability, they cannot directly absorb heaven and earth vitality from the outside world to replenish their innate Qi, and their ability to continue fighting is very average.

After the strength is exhausted, a single bullet could take his life!

Li Fei discovered that the Western Continent seemed to be very good at using firearms and Transcendentals to cooperate to surround and kill higher-level Transcendentals.

In these battle examples where martial arts experts were surrounded and killed, those ordinary soldiers holding firearms also played a significant role!

Once the movement of a martial arts expert was slightly restricted, the surrounding ordinary soldiers would seize the opportunity to fire.

A close-range rifle bullet, even if it couldn't break through the protective strength of a Dao Foundation martial artist, could still cause a certain amount of consumption to them.

Besides that, there were some Transcendentals in the Western Allied Forces who specifically practiced firearms; their transcendent abilities combined with firearms could exert greater power.

Using multiple low-level Transcendentals to hold the opponent head-on, creating opportunities for the surrounding gunmen, constantly firing and consuming, eventually grinding an expert to death.

This was the main battle tactic adopted by the Western Allied Forces to deal with martial artists below the Martial Arts Grandmaster level.

As for Martial Arts Grandmasters and Great Grandmasters, naturally, there were stronger Transcendentals to rival them.

Through these specific battle examples, Li Fei discovered that the Western Allied Forces' battle tactic thinking was very clear, which was to accumulate advantages layer by layer from bottom to top:

Firearms and cannons were sufficient to defeat ordinary soldiers, thereby allowing their own ordinary soldiers to cooperate with low-level Transcendentals to surround and kill Dao Foundation martial artists and below.

In this way, Earl-level Transcendentals could free up their hands to cooperate with Marquis-level Transcendentals to surround and kill Martial Arts Grandmasters.

Going further up, some Marquis-level Transcendentals could also free up their hands to cooperate with Duke-level Transcendentals to surround and kill Great Grandmasters.

Compared to the Great Lan Dynasty's traditional war thinking of 'soldier against soldier, general against general'.

The Western Continent's way of influencing the battle between top-level experts to the greatest extent through the advantages of bottom-level soldiers could be considered giving the Eastern Continent a lesson!

This was also why after that battle, Ye Ye Zean insisted on pushing for the 'Mingxin Reform'.

Only if the bottom-level soldiers could hold back the soldiers of the Western Continent could the Great Lan Dynasty fully exert its advantages at the expert level.

Li Fei read through all the battle examples, and his biggest feeling was:

There is no truly invincible person in this world.

No matter how powerful an expert is, as long as their strength can be consumed, they can be injured, and they can bleed, there must be the possibility of 'ants biting an elephant to death'!

Even peak experts can still be surrounded and killed.

A military formation of five thousand people can barely rival a peak expert, and a military formation of ten thousand people is sufficient to threaten the life of a peak expert!

When the Taizu Emperor of the Great Lan Dynasty was conquering the world, a battle example occurred:

More than 12,000 Imperial Camp soldiers surrounded and killed a Martial Saint!

That Martial Saint chose to fight to the death without retreating, eventually killing more than 5,000 Imperial Camp soldiers, but he himself was also pushed to the limit and had his head cut off by a Great Grandmaster who seized the opportunity!

"So, are you trying to tell me that no matter how strong individual strength is, there is a limit, and what is truly great is the country's system and the power of the collective?"

After Li Fei finished reading the battle examples in his hand, he secretly pondered the Emperor's intention.

If Xiang Yunshu hadn't made a move to guard Lanling City, and there hadn't been ten thousand Tianlan Iron Cavalry charging the formation, relying on Wen Wen Ren Zheng alone would not have been able to repel the Western Allied Forces.

"Being a martial artist is not as good as integrating into the system, being a general, being a marshal?"

The Emperor finally mentioned 'bringing peace to the world', and Li Fei could understand the intention behind it.

In the past, the Crown Prince had also mentioned to him and Ming Qi: true unification of the world is the unification of the Eastern Continent and the Western Continent!

Now it seems that even though the rebellion of True Monarch Qingxu caused damage to national strength and national fortune, the Emperor still had not given up on his plot against the Western Continent.

So Li Fei also roughly guessed the other layer of the Emperor's intention:

Even if some forces did something out of line, it could be tolerated under such circumstances.

Everything for the big picture!

Thinking back to the conversation with Grand Secretary Ye Ye Zean that night, many things became very clear.

Li Fei sat quietly in the great hall for a while, and finally, a smile appeared on his face.

He put all the materials back into the wooden box, then picked up the wooden box and stood up to walk out of the great hall.

When he walked to the door, Feng Cheng came up to meet him:

"Has Marquis Jing'an finished reading?"

"Finished."

Li Fei handed the wooden box in his hand to Feng Cheng, "Does His Majesty have any other instructions?"

"No more, Marquis Jing'an can leave the palace at any time."

"Good."

Li Fei nodded and left the place.

After leaving the Imperial City, he returned directly to his mansion.

"Marquis."

Lu Lu Wenxing found him immediately, "Does His Majesty have anything to say about what happened last night?"

Li Fei looked at him: "Regarding the trade with the Western Continent, even if the person behind the scenes is found, they probably won't be punished heavily."

Lu Lu Wenxing opened his eyes wide: "How could this be?"

Li Fei thought for a while and did not tell the other party about the imperial court secretly trading with the Western Continent.

This was a top secret, and Lu Lu Wenxing did not have the authorization to know.

And for some things, letting the other party know too much would instead harm them.

"Then how should we count the matter of the person behind the scenes joining hands with the Westerners to plot against you, Marquis?"

Lu Lu Wenxing saw Li Fei's hesitation and very cleverly did not pursue it further, but changed the question.

"Secretly trading top-tier Dao Foundation inheritances with the Western Continent won't be punished heavily, let alone the fact that the other party only intended to plot against me and didn't succeed in the end, and I didn't suffer any substantial loss."

Li Fei smiled indifferently.

In the past, the Emperor treated him with great favor, even willing to write a letter to Lin Tianyi Tower for him, and was willing to bear any conditions Lin Tianyi Tower put forward.

As a result, after he spent three months in the Royal Library, he ignored the advice and, under the suggestion of a Martial Saint and a True Monarch to re-cultivate, still stubbornly chose the path of cultivation with the most risk.

If it were any other monarch, they would certainly be dissatisfied.

So Li Fei was not surprised by such a result.

"This..."

Lu Lu Wenxing was both shocked and angry.

Did Li Fei mean that the imperial court wouldn't investigate this matter deeply either?!

"His Majesty he..."

Lu Lu Wenxing hesitated to speak.

This attitude was much more serious than not letting Li Fei see the Emperor before.

This was already a very obvious warning!

He didn't know what Li Fei had said to the Emperor in the palace before he went into seclusion.

Letting Li Fei stay in the Royal Library for three months and choose manuals at will.

Such honor and thick treatment, looking at the 500-year history of the Great Lan Dynasty, Li Fei was the only one!

Lu Lu Wenxing didn't understand what Li Fei had done to make the Emperor's attitude toward him change so much?

Li Fei saw Lu Lu Wenxing's worry and couldn't help but smile and comfort him:

"You don't need to worry too much; today I met His Majesty in the Yangxin Hall, and the Grand Secretary and the Grand Marshal were also present..."

He roughly told Lu Lu Wenxing about what happened in the Yangxin Hall today.

Lu Lu Wenxing heard that Li Fei discussed matters in the same hall with the Grand Secretary and the Military Grand Marshal, and the Emperor finally specifically mentioned 'bringing peace to the world' and specially sent someone to send Li Fei the first-class secrets of the Military Council, so he breathed a sigh of relief:

"Looking at it this way, His Majesty still has high expectations for you, Marquis; you don't need to be too anxious, there will be plenty of opportunities to take revenge for today's hatred in the future!"

In Lu Lu Wenxing's view, thunder and rain are all imperial grace.

Sometimes a warning is also a kind of importance.

"It doesn't matter, as long as I know who the enemy is."

Li Fei smiled indifferently.

"Marquis..."

Lu Lu Wenxing was shocked, very worried that Li Fei would act impulsively.

Li Fei did not give him a chance to advise, and changed the subject:

"How are the votes for the Lanxun Pavilion participants in Feng Province? How many votes can we get?"

During this period, he had been in seclusion, focusing on breaking through the Daoist realm.

He had left the Lanxun Pavilion and the public vote matters to Lu Lu Wenxing and others, as well as the Datong Prefecture side to resolve.

Now that there were only two days left before the public vote, he also wanted to understand the situation.

"Marquis, Datong Prefecture has a total of 62 votes, and we can get 53 votes. The 23 votes of Yunxi Prefecture, we have only managed to win 4 votes so far."

Lu Lu Wenxing said.

Li Fei: "That is to say, I can get a total of 57 votes, then what about the Lu family side?"

Lu Lu Wenxing: "According to our estimates and the situation we have inquired about, the Lu family has also won a few votes in Yunxi Prefecture, plus the votes from the provincial capital and Qingli Prefecture, they can get at least 70 votes.

Currently, there are still more than a dozen votes in the entire Feng Province that are neutral and wavering. If these people can cast their votes for us in the public vote the day after tomorrow, then you, Marquis, will have a chance to be elected."

"Hmm."

Li Fei nodded, not surprised by this result.

He had originally thought that if it really didn't work, he would cast the votes he obtained for that representative of Yunxi Prefecture.

If he couldn't be a member, he wouldn't let the Lu family members be elected either.

But now it seemed that because he had to keep at least 10 votes to ensure his qualification as a reserve member, even if the remaining 47 votes were all cast for the Yunxi Prefecture representative, it would be difficult for the total number of votes to exceed the Lu family.

The key lay in those dozen or so neutral and wavering participants.

"Show me the information of all the participants, and mark for me who is neutral and who is wavering."

Li Fei instructed.

"Good."

Lu Lu Wenxing turned to handle the matter.

Soon, he handed a thick stack of information to Li Fei.

Li Fei read this information in his room until late at night.

February 28th.

A piece of news came back from the northern border:

One of the four Provincial Military Commanders of the Military Council, Prince Cheng Qin Qin Shixian, led his troops to defeat the Five-Nation Allied Forces of the Northern Barbarians, and the danger in the northern border was resolved!

After this victory report was sent back, the court and the public were shocked, and the entire Lanling City was celebrating!

Inside the palace, the Son of Heaven was overjoyed and personally wrote a commendation document, which was sent to the northern border by telegram.

Soon, more specific news came out from the palace.

Prince Cheng wrote down the names of some outstanding generals in the victory report, asking for credit for these people, and the Emperor approved them one by one and gave heavy rewards.

Among the names of these generals, there was one person named Lu Lu Wenyao, who was the cousin of the Lu family head, Lu Lu Wenzheng.

Among the direct descendants of the previous generation of the Lu family, Lu Lu Wenyao had always been the one with the highest martial arts talent.

The Lu family also had high hopes for him, sending him into the army to be tempered and focusing on cultivating him.

After the outbreak of the Great War in the northern border, Lu Lu Wenyao led troops to fight in the northern border army.

In this great war, this 59-year-old 'old general' successfully broke through his realm, became a Martial Arts Grandmaster, and later beheaded the enemy commander!

Prince Cheng highlighted this matter in the victory report, so before Lu Lu Wenyao returned, the Son of Heaven gave him a heavy reward first:

Conferring Lu Lu Wenyao as Earl of Wuxuan!

The Lu family already had one Marquis and three Earls, and had been operating for Lu Lu Wenyao to also be conferred as an Earl, so as to achieve the pattern of one Marquis and four Earls in one family.

Now that Lu Lu Wenyao had broken through his realm and made military contributions, the matter of conferring him as an Earl finally became a matter of course.

Once this matter came out, the Lu family's reputation suddenly soared!

The Lu family was one of the 'Ten Great Clans', with main influence in the government rather than individual combat power.

The family only had one guest who reached the Martial Arts Grandmaster level, which was Miao Lang, who stood out this time to run for the Lanxun Pavilion member position.

But a guest is not as good as one's own family; now that the Lu family had someone who broke through to the Martial Arts Grandmaster realm, the family's foundation had improved a notch.

And Lu Lu Wenyao was only 59 years old; judging by the age of a Martial Arts Grandmaster, he was still very young, and there might not be no chance to go one step further in the future, conferring as a Marquis by military merit!

In that case, the Lu family would have two Marquises, and their ranking among the 'Ten Great Clans' could also be raised a bit.

Li Fei was practicing in his mansion and only learned this news in the afternoon of that day.

"Marquis, I inquired with an acquaintance in the border army, and it is said that Lu Lu Wenyao received guidance from Prince Cheng before breaking through his realm, and I am afraid that Prince Cheng's mansion contributed a lot to his being able to be conferred as an Earl so smoothly this time."

Lu Lu Wenxing said to Li Fei.

"Hmm."

Li Fei was not surprised by this.

He had just slapped Prince Cheng's mansion in the face as soon as he came out of seclusion, so it was normal for Prince Cheng to react.

Li Sister Tianyu was also in the northern border army; when Li Fei made his move, he naturally considered this point.

However, he was very clear that the more aggressive he performed, the safer Li Sister Tianyu would be over there instead.

Even if Prince Cheng's mansion wanted to counterattack, it was impossible for it to fall on Li Sister Tianyu, unless the other party wanted to tear their faces apart completely.

Now it seemed that Prince Cheng's mansion's counterattack had fallen on the Lu family.

Prince Cheng Qin Qin Shixian was at the peak Great Grandmaster cultivation, so guiding a Dao Foundation martial artist was naturally more than enough.

Plus the other party's status as the Northern Border Military Commander, it was also very simple to let Lu Lu Wenyao make some military contributions.

"This victory report came back neither early nor late, just stuck on the day before the Lanxun Pavilion public vote; I am afraid it was also intentional."

Lu Lu Wenxing sighed, "Now that the Lu family has been conferred another Earl and has one more Martial Arts Grandmaster, those wavering votes in Feng Province will probably all lean toward the Lu family."

He actually had one more thing he didn't say.

The Emperor also chose to let Lu Lu Wenyao be conferred as an Earl on the day before the public vote; this was probably also an attitude.

Li Fei smiled when he heard this, not looking depressed:

"It doesn't matter, we will see tomorrow."

After speaking, he stood up and returned to the secret room to continue his cultivation.

On the same night, Feng Province.

Lu Mansion.

Lu Lu Wenzheng was listening to the report of his subordinates in the study.

"Family Head, the Sect Master of the Yunling Sect has already agreed to cast his vote for us tomorrow."

"The Silver Fox Gang has set conditions; if we help them take down those two mines in Hongshan City, they can also cast their votes for us."

"..."

What the subordinates reported were forces within Feng Province that were qualified to join the Lanxun Pavilion and had participant quotas.

These forces were either neutral or wavering before, waiting to ask for an exorbitant price at the end, but now after the news of Lu Lu Wenyao came back, they all made their choices.

Lu Lu Wenzheng had a smile on his face; after the subordinates finished reporting, he calculated the Lu family's votes, which was already a situation of ten-to-nine stability, so he couldn't help but be in a great mood:

"For those who set conditions, send someone to tell them that the Lu family no longer needs their votes; from now on, whether they are friends or enemies, let them watch for themselves!"

"Yes."

After the subordinates left, Lu Lu Wenzheng walked to a bookshelf and pressed a mechanism.

The next second, the bookshelf moved to the side, revealing the secret door inside.

He walked into it, came to a secret room, picked up a jade pendant used for communication, closed his eyes, and contacted someone in the distance.

A moment later, Lu Lu Wenzheng walked out of the secret room, came outside the study, looked up in the direction of Lanling City, his eyes sharp:

"Li Fei, let's see how long you can be proud!"

48th year of Emperor Hongguang, March 1st.

7:00 AM.

Outside the Zhengyang Gate of the Imperial City of Lanling City, there was a huge square; at this time, the square was full of Imperial Guards, and outside were a large number of onlookers.

A huge platform was set up in the square, and there was a huge liquid display screen on the platform.

This was the live broadcast site for the first national public vote of the Lanxun Pavilion.

Today, twenty-three Lanxun Pavilion members representing each province would be publicly elected here.

As time passed, more and more people arrived at the scene.

Many big figures came directly from the Imperial City, including the Crown Prince, the First Prince, and the Third Prince.

Twenty-three provinces, Martial Arts Grandmasters and True Persons sent by major forces also arrived one after another, which could be described as experts like clouds!

With a commotion in the crowd, a golden figure walked into the square, attracting the attention of everyone present.

A group of experts, the Crown Prince and several Princes, and imperial court officials all looked over—

Marquis Jing'an Li Fei had arrived.

PS: This chapter is 7000+, please give me a monthly ticket~

(End of chapter)