Chapter 762: Thunder and Dew, All are Imperial Grace (7000)

Inside the Hall of Mental Cultivation, Li Fei sat alone in his seat, reading the "Battle Report."

Although the Great Lan Dynasty was the ultimate victor of that great war years ago, the process had been deeply humiliating.

For an empire that had dominated the Eastern Continent for over five hundred years, being crushed all the way to the capital was truly a disgrace!

The reason the early stages of that war were lost so quickly and so miserably was not merely because the Western Allied Forces had caught them off guard, or because the Great Lan Dynasty was unprepared for the high-tech weapons of the Western Continent.

There was an even more important reason: the corruption within the Great Lan Dynasty itself!

The records Li Fei saw in the "Battle Report" spanned from the western coastline all the way to the gates of Lanling City, covering five provinces and dozens of major cities in between.

As a result, when faced with the spearhead of the Western Allied Forces, more than half of these cities surrendered or fled without a fight!

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

More than half of the local city garrisons and inspection bureaus were collecting pay for ghost soldiers; they lacked training, their combat effectiveness was poor, and their morale was even worse.

Ironically, along the path of the Western Allied Forces' advance, it was the local martial artists, local magnates, and aristocratic clans who actually inflicted significant damage on them.

In order to protect their homes and interests, these people erupted with a fighting spirit stronger than that of the government!

But without unified command, these local forces were like scattered sand and ultimately could not pose a real obstacle to the Western Allied Forces.

After the Western Allied Forces conquered one province, the imperial court planned to urgently mobilize the "Red Qilin Army" stationed on the southwestern border.

The Great Lan Dynasty had a total of four imperial armies, each ten thousand strong. Besides the Sky Blue Iron Cavalry guarding the capital, there was one imperial army of over ten thousand stationed in each of the eastern, western, and northern borders.

The Red Qilin Army was one of them, responsible for guarding the southern border and deterring the two great desert nations.

As it turned out, just as the court planned to mobilize the Red Qilin Army along with a portion of the southern border troops to head north, the two great desert nations in the southern wilderness launched an attack simultaneously!

Under these circumstances, neither the Red Qilin Army nor the southern border troops dared to act rashly, and the other two border armies were too far away.

Without trains or automobiles, the court's troop mobilization speed was very slow, far unable to compare with the marching speed of the Western Allied Forces.

Therefore, the court could only temporarily organize local manpower while sending the Imperial Guards 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, but failed to discover the powerhouses hidden within the Allied Forces who had not yet made a move.

After the Western Allied Forces easily punched through another province, the army organized by the court arrived at the front lines:

Over sixty thousand people in total, drawn from the city garrisons of five provinces, as well as personnel from the local inspection bureaus, the Stop-the-War Academy, and the Justice Academy.

There were also over twenty thousand more, consisting of routed soldiers from the two provinces already breached by the Western Allied Forces and volunteer armies organized spontaneously in various places.

Most importantly, the imperial armies from the five provinces were also concentrated, totaling over 7, 00 imperial soldiers!

Of course, these imperial soldiers could at most form thousand-man military formations; anything larger required a different grade of evil-suppressing artifact, and the requirements for their own strength and coordination were also different.

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

But the local imperial soldiers could at most form thousand-man-level military formations.

Yet even a thousand-man-level military formation was enough to rival a Grandmaster!

Over 7, 00 imperial soldiers could form seven thousand-man-level military formations, equivalent to having seven Grandmasters holding the line!

In addition to this, there were one hundred thousand Imperial Guards dispatched from Lanling City, and the two Grand Commanders leading them were both Grandmasters.

The Stop-the-War Pavilion sent two Vice Pavilion Masters, who were also Grandmasters.

The Justice Pavilion sent two Vice Pavilion Masters, both at the peak True Person cultivation level.

Below them were dozens of members from the Stop-the-War Pavilion and Justice Pavilion, as well as commanders within the Imperial Guards with the cultivation of Martial Arts Masters, and other such powerhouses.

An army of nearly two hundred thousand, with powerhouses like clouds, faced off against the 150, 00-strong Western Allied Forces!

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

It was also this battle that made the Great Lan Dynasty realize that the era of cold weapons had passed!

In open terrain, as soon as the enemy's artillery roared and a saturation bombardment occurred, the morale of ordinary soldiers would basically vanish, and they would begin to rout.

Any formation or tactic in the art of war was useless in the face of such artillery!

As for the Great Lan Dynasty's most prideful iron cavalry charges, they also suffered heavy losses when facing the enemy's heavy machine guns and volley-fire tactics.

The only two things that could pose a threat to the Western Allied Forces were cultivators and the imperial armies.

Among them, the imperial armies were the most effective!

Compared to individual powerhouses, imperial armies lacked flexibility, and every one lost was one less; if an evil-suppressing artifact was damaged, it was difficult to repair, and their ability for protracted warfare was not as good as individual powerhouses.

But when it came to the ability to settle a large-scale battlefield and turn the tide of war, the imperial armies were absolutely unrivaled in the world!

Once an imperial army forming a thousand-man military formation launched a charge, its speed was faster than a galloping horse; it was difficult for artillery to hit, and bullets could not break through the surrounding evil-suppressing energy.

When the imperial army slaughtered its way into the enemy ranks, it was naturally a massacre!

But the imperial armies 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-suppressing energy would be greatly reduced.

This made Li Fei recall the battle where he had faced an imperial army head-on.

At that time, he fought over fifty imperial soldiers, and it was indeed true that the more they fought, the lower the imperial army's combat effectiveness became.

In the records of the book in his hands, a thousand-man-level military formation required at least one thousand imperial soldiers to be activated.

Once activated, if the number of imperial soldiers maintaining the formation dropped by more than twenty percent, the formation could not be maintained.

In other words, for a thousand-man-level formation, once the number of people fell below 800, the formation could not be maintained and could only be reduced to a 500, 300, or 100-man formation, with combat effectiveness constantly decreasing.

Under these circumstances, the seven imperial armies participating in the battle achieved good results in the beginning, but as the transcendent beings within the Western Allied Forces began to strike one after another, the casualties of the imperial armies also began to increase continuously. When the number of people fell below 800, the combat effectiveness of the seven imperial armies plummeted.

Once their greatest advantage was gone, the fate of this Great Lan Dynasty army was sealed!

The book in Li Fei's hands recorded the number of powerhouses in that Western Allied Force from back then:

Over eighty Marquis-level powerhouses.

Twelve Duke-level powerhouses.

Three Prince-level powerhouses.

At the time, the Great Lan Dynasty did not understand the Western Continent's Prince-level powerhouses, assuming they were equivalent in combat power to Grandmasters.

Only after truly engaging in battle did they discover that the Western Continent's Prince-level powerhouses were actually a tier stronger than peak Grandmasters!

With the battle at the level of top powerhouses falling into a disadvantage, and the battle of the rank-and-file soldiers also falling into a disadvantage, the final outcome for the Great Lan Dynasty's two-hundred-thousand-strong army was a rout!

Both Grand Commanders of the Imperial Guards were killed in action, and one Vice Pavilion Master of the Stop-the-War Pavilion was also killed.

In addition to this, over a dozen pavilion members were killed, and of the 7, 00-plus imperial soldiers, fewer than one-third escaped!

According to post-war statistics, the casualties on the Great Lan Dynasty side were nearly seventy thousand, while the casualties of the Western Allied Forces were less than twenty thousand.

If not for the imperial armies charging the lines, the casualties of the Western Allied Forces would have been even lower, and the combat loss ratio would have been even more humiliating!

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

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

At this time, the number of Western Allied Forces remained at 120, 00, and they were prepared to use bombers that had never been used before!

The following battle is recorded in many books and materials:

The "God of War" Wenren Zheng personally led the troops, commanding ten thousand Sky Blue Iron Cavalry to meet the 120, 00 Western Allied Forces.

They won in a single battle, completely crushing the 120, 00 Allied Forces!

The book in Li Fei's hands, however, had more detailed battle records:

Just as 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 powerhouses of the Eastern Continent or the strongest ten-thousand-man-level military formations.

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

They thought that as long as they had bombers dropping bombs from high altitude, even a ten-thousand-man-level imperial army would only be cannon fodder.

As a result, after the war began, Wenren Zheng faced three Princes alone, killing one on the spot and severely wounding another!

With a ten-thousand-man-level military formation, the evil-suppressing energy could surge even up to ten thousand meters in the air!

Planes fell one after another, powerhouses were killed, and formations were scattered.

Seeing that defeat was imminent, the Western Allied Forces, like a dog jumping over a wall in desperation, chose to use planes to directly bomb Lanling City, attempting to force Wenren Zheng to return to defend it.

As a result, the Imperial Preceptor Yunshu led a group of True Persons from the Justice Pavilion to fly through the air and take care of all the planes that came to attack.

With this, the Western Allied Forces were completely routed.

They had come with an army of 160, 00, and in the end, fewer than 30, 00 returned alive to the Western Continent, and more than half of the transcendent beings who set out were killed or injured!

Turning the book in his hands to the last page, Li Fei slowly closed it, feeling somewhat stirred.

He now knew why this book was a top-secret document of the Military Affairs Department; it was because much of the information recorded inside was extremely critical.

Putting the book aside, Li Fei picked up other booklets from the wooden box.

These booklets recorded even more detailed battle cases from that year, such as the defense and offense of a certain city or place, surprise attacks, and so on.

What interested Li Fei were some of the battle cases recorded where martial arts powerhouses were surrounded and killed.

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

In this battle, the Western Allied Forces did not have any Count-level powerhouses capable of confronting this Dao Foundation stage martial artist head-on; they simply relied on a group of ordinary soldiers and a crowd of low-level transcendent beings to surround and kill them.

A Dao Foundation stage martial artist had not yet fully constructed their Dao Foundation, and if they did not have special core-level transcendent abilities, they could not directly absorb heaven and earth spiritual energy from the outside to replenish their innate Qi, so their endurance in battle would be quite average.

Once their internal energy was exhausted, a single bullet could potentially take their life!

Li Fei discovered that the Western Continent seemed very adept at using firearms in coordination with transcendent beings to surround and kill higher-level transcendent beings.

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

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

A rifle bullet at close range, even if it could not pierce the protective energy of a Dao Foundation stage martial artist, could still cause a certain amount of depletion.

In addition to this, there were some transcendent beings in the Western Allied Forces who specifically practiced with firearms; their transcendent abilities, when combined with firearms, could exert even greater power.

Using multiple low-level transcendent beings to pin down the opponent head-on, creating opportunities for the surrounding gunmen to continuously fire and deplete them, eventually grinding a powerhouse to death.

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

As for Martial Arts Masters and Grandmasters, there were naturally stronger transcendent beings to rival them.

Through these specific battle examples, Li Fei discovered that the Western Allied Forces had a very clear tactical approach: to accumulate advantages layer by layer, from the bottom up:

Firearms and cannons were sufficient to rout ordinary soldiers, thereby allowing their own ordinary soldiers to coordinate with low-level transcendents to surround and kill martial artists at the Dao Foundation stage and below.

In this way, Count-level transcendents could free up their hands to coordinate with Marquess-level transcendents to surround and kill Martial Arts Masters.

Moving further up, some Marquess-level transcendents could also free up their hands to coordinate with Duke-level transcendents to surround and kill Grandmasters.

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

The Western Continent's method of using the advantages of bottom-tier soldiers to influence the battles between top-tier powerhouses to the greatest extent was a lesson for the Eastern Continent!

This was also why, after that battle back then, Ye Ze insisted on pushing for the "Mingxin Reform."

Only if the bottom-tier soldiers could pin down the Western Continent's soldiers could the Great Lan Dynasty fully exert its advantages at the powerhouse level.

Li Fei read through all the battle examples, and his greatest realization was:

There is no truly invincible person in this world.

No matter how powerful a powerhouse is, as long as their strength can be depleted, and they can be injured and bleed, there will always be the possibility of "ants swarming to kill an elephant"!

Even a peak powerhouse can still be surrounded and killed.

A military formation of five thousand men could barely contend with a peak powerhouse, and a formation of ten thousand was enough to threaten a peak powerhouse's life!

A battle example occurred back when the Great Lan Dynasty's Founding Emperor was conquering the world:

Over twelve thousand Imperial Camp soldiers surrounded and killed a Martial Saint!

That Martial Saint chose to fight to the death without retreating, eventually killing over five thousand Imperial Camp soldiers, but was himself exhausted to his limit and had his head severed when a Grandmaster seized the opportunity!

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

After reading the battle examples in his hands, Li Fei pondered the Emperor's intentions in his heart.

If Xiang Yunshu had not stepped in to guard Lanling City, and if there had not been ten thousand Heavenly Lan Iron Cavalry to charge the lines, relying on Wenren Zheng alone would not have been enough to repel the Western Allied Forces.

"Is it better to be a martial artist, or to integrate into the system, to be a general, to be a marshal?"

The Emperor finally mentioned "Pacifying the World," and Li Fei could understand the intention behind it.

The Crown Prince had once mentioned to him and Ming Qi: true unification of the world means unifying the Eastern Continent and the Western Continent!

Looking at it now, even though the rebellion of True Person Qingxu caused damage to the national strength and national fortune, the Emperor still had not abandoned his designs on the Western Continent.

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

Even if some factions have done things that overstep, under these circumstances, it is still tolerable.

Everything is for the greater good!

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

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

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

When he reached the door, Feng Cheng greeted him:

"Has the Marquis of 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, the Marquis of Jing'an may leave the palace at any time."

"Good."

Li Fei nodded and left the place.

After exiting the Imperial City, he returned directly to his own residence.

"Marquis."

Lu Wenxing found him immediately, "Does His Majesty have anything to say about last night's events?"

Li Fei looked at him: "Regarding the trade with the Western Continent, even if the person behind the scenes is discovered, there likely won't be a heavy punishment."

Lu Wenxing widened his eyes: "How could that be?"

Li Fei thought for a moment and did not tell him about the secret trade between the imperial court and the Western Continent.

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

Moreover, for some things, letting the other party know too much would instead be harmful to them.

"Then how is the matter of that person behind the scenes colluding with the Western Continent to harm you, Marquis, to be settled?"

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

"If trading top-tier Dao Foundation legacies with the Western Continent won't result in heavy punishment, then it's even less so when the other party only intended to harm me and ultimately didn't succeed, and I didn't suffer any substantive loss."

Li Fei said with an indifferent smile.

Back then, the Emperor had treated him with great favor, even willing to write a letter to the Heavenly One Pavilion for his sake, and was willing to bear any conditions the Heavenly One Pavilion set.

Yet, after he spent three months in the Royal Library, he ignored the advice and, despite a Martial Saint and a True Person both suggesting he recultivate, he stubbornly chose the path of cultivation with the most risk.

Any monarch would certainly be dissatisfied.

Therefore, Li Fei was not surprised by this result.

"This—"

Lu Wenxing was both shocked and angry.

Li Fei meant that the imperial court would not investigate this matter deeply either?!

"His Majesty, he—"

Lu Wenxing hesitated.

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

This was already a very obvious warning!

He did not know what Li Fei had said to the Emperor in the palace before he went into seclusion.

Allowing Li Fei to stay in the Royal Library for three months and choose any secret manual he wanted.

Such honor and favor, looking back at the five hundred years of history of the Great Lan Dynasty, Li Fei was the only one!

Lu Wenxing did not understand what Li Fei had done to cause such a huge change in the Emperor's attitude toward him.

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

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

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

Upon hearing that Li Fei had discussed matters in the same hall with the Grand Secretary and the Grand Marshal of the Military Council, and that the Emperor had specifically mentioned "Pacifying the World" at the end, and even sent someone to deliver top-secret documents from the Military Council to Li Fei, Lu Wenxing couldn't help but breathe 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 avenge today's grudge in the future!"

In Lu Wenxing's view, the Emperor's favor and wrath were both imperial grace.

Sometimes, a warning is also a form of regard.

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

Li Fei smiled calmly.

"Marquis..."

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

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

"How are the vote counts for the Feng Province Lanxun Pavilion parameters? How many votes can we secure?"

He had been in seclusion during this time, focusing on breaking through his cultivation realm.

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

Now that there were only two days left until the referendum, he also needed to understand the situation.

"Marquis, there are 62 votes in total in Datong Prefecture, and we can get 53 votes. As for the 23 votes in Yunxi Prefecture, we have currently only secured 4."

Lu Wenxing said.

Li Fei: "That is to say, I can get a total of 57 votes. What about the Lu family's side?"

Lu Wenxing: "According to our estimates and the information we've gathered, the Lu family has also lobbied for a few votes in Yunxi Prefecture. Adding the votes from the provincial capital and Qingli Prefecture, they can get at least 70 votes.

Currently, there are still over a dozen neutral and wavering votes in the entire Feng Province. If these people can cast their votes for us in the referendum 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 out, he would just cast the votes he had secured for that representative from Yunxi Prefecture.

If he couldn't be a cabinet member himself, he wouldn't let someone from the Lu family be elected as a cabinet member either.

But looking at it now, because he had to retain at least 10 votes to ensure his own qualification as a reserve cabinet member, even if all the remaining 47 votes were cast for the representative from Yunxi Prefecture, the total vote count would still be hard to exceed the Lu family's.

The key lay with those dozen or so neutral and wavering councilors.

"Give me the profiles of all the councilors. Mark for me which ones are neutral and which ones are wavering."

Li Fei instructed.

"Good."

Lu Wenxing turned to handle the task.

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

Li Fei read these documents in his room until late at night.

February 28th.

A piece of news came back from the Northern Frontier:

One of the four Provincial Military Commanders of the Military Council, Prince Cheng, Qin Shixian, led his troops to defeat the Northern Barbarian Five-Tribe Allied Forces, and the crisis in the Northern Frontier has been resolved!

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

Inside the Imperial Palace, the Son of Heaven was greatly pleased and personally wrote a letter of commendation, which was transmitted by telegraph to the Northern Frontier.

Soon, more specific news emerged from the palace.

In the victory report, Prince Cheng specifically listed the names of several outstanding generals and requested rewards for them, all of which the Emperor granted, bestowing generous rewards.

Among the names of these generals was a man named Lu Wenyao, who was the cousin of the Lu family head, Lu Wenzheng.

Among the direct descendants of the previous generation of the Lu family, Lu Wenyao had always possessed the highest talent for martial arts.

The Lu family also held high hopes for him, sending him into the military to be tempered and focusing on his cultivation.

After the outbreak of the Great War in the Northern Frontier, Lu Wenyao led troops in battle within the Northern Frontier border army.

In this great war, this fifty-nine-year-old "old general" successfully broke through his realm to become a Martial Arts Master, and subsequently beheaded an enemy commander in battle!

Prince Cheng emphasized this matter in the victory report, so before Lu Wenyao could even return, the Son of Heaven bestowed a heavy reward:

Lu Wenyao was enfeoffed as the Earl of Wuxuan!

The Lu family already held one Marquisate and three Earldoms; they had been maneuvering for Lu Wenyao to also be made an Earl, thereby achieving a status of one Marquisate and four Earldoms for the family.

Now that Lu Wenyao had broken through his realm and achieved military merit, his enfeoffment as an Earl finally followed logically.

Once this news broke, the Lu family's reputation soared!

The Lu family is one of the "Ten Great Clans," with their primary influence in the government rather than individual combat power.

The family only had one retainer who had reached the level of Martial Arts Master, which was Miao Lang, who had stepped forward to run for a seat in the Blue Patrol Pavilion.

But no matter how good a retainer is, they cannot compare to one of one's own kin; now that the Lu family had someone who had broken through to the realm of Martial Arts Master, the family's foundation had improved significantly.

Moreover, Lu Wenyao was only fifty-nine; in terms of the age of a Martial Arts Master, he was still very young, and there was no guarantee he wouldn't have the opportunity to take another step forward in the future and be enfeoffed as a Marquis based on military merit!

If that were to happen, the Lu family would have two Marquises, and their ranking among the "Ten Great Clans" could also be raised.

Li Fei was cultivating in his mansion and did not learn of this news until that afternoon.

"Marquis, I asked an acquaintance in the border army, and it is said that before Lu Wenyao broke through his realm, he had received guidance from Prince Cheng. I fear that Prince Cheng's estate played no small part in his being able to be enfeoffed as an Earl so smoothly."

Lu Wenxing said to Li Fei.

"Hmm."

Li Fei was not surprised by this.

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

Li Tianyu was also in the Northern Frontier army, and when Li Fei made his move, he had naturally considered this point.

However, he was very clear that the more powerful he appeared, the safer Li Tianyu would be over there.

Even if Prince Cheng's estate wanted to retaliate, it would not fall upon Li Tianyu, unless the other party wanted to completely tear off the mask of civility.

As it appeared now, the retaliation from Prince Cheng's estate had fallen upon the Lu family.

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

Added to his status as the Provincial Military Commander of the Northern Frontier, it was very simple for him to let Lu Wenyao achieve some military merit.

"This victory report came neither too early nor too late, arriving exactly on the day before the Blue Patrol Pavilion referendum; I fear this was also intentional."

Lu Wenxing sighed, "Now that the Lu family has been granted another Earldom and has gained an additional Martial Arts Master, those wavering votes in Feng Province will likely all lean toward the Lu family."

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

The fact that His Majesty also chose to let Lu Wenyao be enfeoffed as an Earl on the day before the referendum was likely also a statement of attitude.

Li Fei smiled upon hearing this, appearing not at all dejected:

"No matter, we shall see tomorrow."

After speaking, he rose and returned to the secret chamber to continue his cultivation.

That same night, in Feng Province.

The Lu Mansion.

Lu Wenzheng was in the study listening to a report from his subordinate.

"Family Head, the Sect Master of the Cloud Ridge Sect has already agreed to cast their vote for us tomorrow."

"The Silver Fox Gang has set a condition: if we help them seize those two mines in Hongshan City, they can also cast their votes for us."

"..."

The subordinates were reporting on the factions within Feng Province that were qualified to join the Blue Patrol Pavilion and held seats for councilors.

These factions had previously been either neutral or wavering, waiting to demand the highest price at the end; now, after the news of Lu Wenyao had returned, they had all made their choices.

Lu Wenzheng wore a smile, and after his subordinates finished reporting, he calculated the Lu family's votes; it was already a sure-fire situation, and he could not help but be in high spirits:

"For those who set conditions, send someone to tell them that the Lu family no longer needs their votes. From now on, whether we are enemies or friends, let them figure it out for themselves!"

"Yes."

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

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

He walked into it, arrived in a secret chamber, picked up a jade pendant used for communication, and closed his eyes to contact someone far away.

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

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

The 48th Year of Hongguang, March 1st.

7: 0 AM.

Outside the Zhengyang Gate of the Imperial City in Lanling City, there was a huge square. At this time, the square was surrounded by the Imperial Guard, and outside were large numbers of onlookers.

A high platform had been set up on the square, and on the platform was a huge liquid crystal display screen.

This was the live broadcast site for the first national referendum of the Blue Patrol Pavilion.

Today, the twenty-three members of the Blue Patrol Pavilion 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 within the Imperial City, including the Crown Prince, the First Imperial Prince, and the Third Imperial Prince.

The Martial Arts Masters and True Persons sent by major factions from the twenty-three provinces also arrived one after another; it could be said that the powerful were as numerous as clouds!

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

A crowd of powerful figures, the Crown Prince, several Imperial Princes, and court officials all looked over—

The Marquis of Jing'an, Li Fei, had arrived.

PS: This chapter is 7000+ words, asking for monthly tickets~

(End of chapter)