War at the Front, Great Governance at the Rear
If you have a TV, don't you need to buy a stereo system? And a TV stand?
With a TV stand, shouldn't you buy a sofa and a dining table next?
We've already bought the sofa, so buying a set of home textiles shouldn't be a problem, right?
Buy home textiles and get curtains free!
Now that we have curtains, do we need to open a window?
Now that we have windows, do we need to buy a set of glass windows?
With glass windows, sunlight will shine in, and the temperature in the room will rise.
So, do we need to buy an air conditioner?
Now that you've bought an air conditioner, your solar panels aren't enough. Should you buy a few more?
Lying on the sofa with the air conditioning on, watching TV, don't you feel like you'd be more comfortable with something to eat or drink?
How about some shrimp chips, potato chips, spicy snacks, and sugary drinks?
Two naive boys, whose only interest was cultivating immortality, were no match for the persuasive sales pitch of a top-notch salesperson from Earth, and ended up buying a whole bunch of stuff without even realizing it.
In less than a day, Zhang Liu had actually spent several thousand Spirit Stone.
His originally simple little house has been transformed into a luxurious living room with huge floor-to-ceiling windows, automatic curtains, air conditioning, a TV, bookshelves, and a coffee table!
Zhang Liu also discovered that watching live broadcasts and videos on a super-large screen TV was much more enjoyable than on a small mobile phone. Coupled with the surround sound brought by the huge speakers, it even gave him a feeling of being there!
Having a TV to watch and being able to learn various bead-making techniques—that's life!
Zhang Yun's expression was inscrutable. He didn't actually have any plans; he just saw that Zhang Liu seemed to really like the beads and wanted to cater to his tastes.
The original intention was to make Zhang Liu also owe a large sum of money, and then conspire with him to embezzle it.
I never expected Zhang Liu's hobby to be so cheap; a mere few dozen Spirit Stone would suffice!
And his assets are so vast!
"Why does he have so much money while my monthly salary is so little?" Zhang Yun felt increasingly resentful, but he was helpless in the face of a tech geek and could only think of another way.
Zhang Liu's life is not an isolated case, but rather a daily experience for all mobile phone users.
I don't know when it started, but all sorts of shops have appeared online, selling all kinds of appliances, clothing, and household goods that I've seen before and those I haven't.
The luxurious mansions, beautiful clothes, and diverse appliances of the main characters in online TV dramas, as well as the bustling cities they live in, arouse the envy of countless viewers and stimulate their desire to buy.
These things, naturally, also caught Qu Heng's attention.
"How strange! The Great Ming Kingdom is clearly at war. I've already sent hundreds of thousands of Outer Disciple into the war effort, and various rebel armies are rising up in rebellion. Logically, even if it's not reduced to ruins, it should at least be a scene of devastation with bones exposed in the fields and no chickens crowing for miles around. How can I still be selling things everywhere?"
He looked at the intelligence report in his hand.
At first, it really was the Great Peace Army that led the uprising, but after the Great Peace Army withstood several waves of attacks from the Outer Disciple, many people seemed to see an opportunity and rose up in rebellion.
Some of the more well-known ones include the Great Qin led by Ying Zheng, the Xiang Yu Great Chu led by Liu Heida, the Qi Great Qi led by Liu Bei, the Han Great Han led by Cao Cao Great Wei, the Wei Great Tang led by Li Shimin, Great Shun Yue Song Dynasty led by Yue Fei, the Yue-Song Dynasty led by Li Zicheng Hua Mei Dun Dynasty led by Li Zicheng, the Great America led by Hai Te Le, the Great Virtue led by Bone King, the Great Tomb of Gui Mu Gui Ma, the Yamato Great Harmony led by Katsuragi Keima, the Bai Hu Zi Zhan Guo led by Ming Ren Zuo Zhu, and the One Piece faction led by One Piece and Sengoku, and so on.
These are the larger forces; we haven't even talked about the smaller rebel armies with only a few thousand or a few hundred people!
On this small land of 22 million square kilometers, there were actually thousands of rebel armies crammed together, fighting against Taiheng while also attacking each other.
Despite the chaos of the world, it not only failed to disrupt normal production and daily life, but also managed to cultivate so many Qi Refining Stage cultivators!
How exactly did they manage to do that?
Qu Heng was completely baffled. Could it be that our previous management methods were wrong, and that we couldn't raise true dragons in peacetime?
He immediately issued an order in the Lineage: the people with the surname Qu should not rush to fight and die, but go and investigate the secrets behind the Great Ming Kingdom.
The Qu Family squad was already in the rear.
When the war is going well, these Lineage members will be able to fight like a thousand men, charging ahead in battle.
When the war was not going well, these Lineage members would supervise the battle from the rear. They could ensure the stability of the war situation, and when victory was achieved in the future, they would still receive the highest credit.
After receiving Qu Heng's order, the group didn't even need to inform their superiors; they simply split into smaller groups and disappeared from the camp.
Qu You and Qu Zuo were twin brothers. They said goodbye and set off southward.
Qu You sensed something was wrong as soon as he left the territory of Great Peace Way.
"There doesn't seem to be anyone around here?"
"There's really no one here. Everyone within a radius of dozens of kilometers has fled, leaving only empty houses," Qu Zuo said.
"This seems like the situation during a normal war, but..." After walking this short distance, the two sensed that something was wrong.
What was a dirt road just ahead suddenly turned into a cement and asphalt road!
Moreover, the road is bustling with traffic, it doesn't look like there's a war going on next door at all!
The two brothers exchanged a glance, Qu You took out his phone to check some information.
"No problem, this is Great Qin territory, they should be fighting against Great Chu!"
"But this looks like a battle?" Qu Zuo asked.
"Perhaps, while the front lines are in dire straits, the rear is feasting?" Qu You and said.
It is true that war will cause people to be displaced, but it is also true that war will not affect the luxurious lives of the wealthy families in the capital.
The two continued on their journey and arrived at a city on the border.
Looking at the smooth roads in the city, the construction sites everywhere, the busy workers in uniform and hats, and the rumbling of machines coming from the bungalows on the edge of the city, the two were dumbfounded.
The war doesn't seem to have really affected the city's operation.
And
"Was this place like this before?" Qu You asked.
"Isn't that right?" Qu Zuo asked blankly, "This is the Lin Family's territory. How could I have been here before! Of course, I don't know what this place used to look like!"
"Is that so!" Qu You nodded, looking at the bustling construction site in front of him, feeling nothing but confusion.
"Dong dong dong, dong dong dong, dong dong dong!" The urgent chimes suddenly rang out all over the world, and they rang nine times in a row!
At the same time, both of their phones started vibrating.
"What's going on?" Qu Heng quickly took out his phone and saw a text message from the City Lord's Mansion of Dou Kang City.
"Fellow residents of Doukang City, our Great Qin have been defeated at the front lines, and this city has been ceded to the Great Chu. The Great Chu will enter the city at 2 PM this afternoon. Residents, please do not disturb or attack them; they will not attack us."
"Soldiers won't disturb the people? What a joke!" Qu Zuo didn't believe a word of it. After all, although Taiheng didn't have many major battles, the countries under its command were often at war.
After winning a battle, it was common for them to brutally kill the enemy and bury them alive!
"Why don't we take a look?" Qu You suggested.
The two simply found a hotel to stay in, playing on their phones while waiting for the Chu army to arrive.
At 2 p. m., the Chu army began to enter the city.
The two watched as squads of soldiers in military uniforms, full of vigor, entered the city through the east gate and then spread out throughout the city.
"They must have gone to rob someone!" Qu Zuo said.
"Mmm!" Qu You nodded; he thought so too.
After the soldiers dispersed throughout the city, some stood guard, some patrolled, and some did nothing at all, just sitting down on the side of the street.
Robbery?
It doesn't exist!
Rape?
No, not at all!
A child playing in the street bumped into these soldiers, and instead of getting angry, the soldiers even gave the child a lollipop!
Qu Zuo peered out of the inn window for a long time, but couldn't spot a single Chu soldier doing anything wrong!
"But how is that possible??"
There are only two things in this world that can deeply move people's hearts: the starry sky above us.
The other is the highest morality in people's hearts!
At that moment, the boy was deeply shocked by this army.
They pay for their purchases, help elderly people cross the street, pick up litter from the street and throw it in the trash can, preferring to sit on the street rather than go into a hotel to rest.
"How is this different from what our Lineage teaches?"
The Qu Family motto is: People are inherently selfish; others have no obligation to help you, and therefore you have no obligation to help others!
The Qu Family must be wholeheartedly devoted to the Lineage, prioritize the Lineage's interests, and spare no effort to strengthen, continue, and develop the Lineage!
If the family precepts are correct, then what are the people below doing?
Qu Zuo inexplicably had a thought.
How despicable are we, who uphold such family precepts?
It must be mentioned that in the ancient, Savage Wilderness times, humans survived by cooperating with each other and hunting together.
Therefore, being kind to others and helping others is basically an instinct ingrained in the genes of most people.
The idea of selfishness and self-centeredness only became prevalent after material abundance and economic development.
Moreover, this trend of thought will not last long, because those who rise to power based on this ideology are well aware of its shortcomings, and therefore, for the sake of their own lives in old age, they do not want their descendants to have the same mindset.
This is why most founding emperors were decisive and ruthless, but their successors were generally gentle, kind, respectful, frugal, and modest.
This change in personality was both a result of the guidance of the civil officials and the indulgence of the founding emperor.
After all, if his son were as ruthless and decisive as he was, do you think he might stage a coup and seize the throne when he was old?
However, in the world of cultivation, this kind of thinking doesn't change so quickly.
Because those who benefit from the system not only have more resources and higher cultivation levels, but also longer lifespans.
He doesn't need his descendants to be particularly filial to him.
On the contrary, in order to ensure the continuation of the Lineage in this increasingly competitive world, he would be even stricter in teaching his descendants various ideas such as selfishness.
When Lineage all over the world think this way, even if someone feels that this idea is wrong, they can't quite put their finger on why.
But when a different ideology emerges in this world, the kindness ingrained in some people awakens, and they begin to reflect on themselves, their Lineage, and the world!
A thought suddenly popped into Qu Zuo's mind.
He was eager to understand the soldiers below him; he was curious about why they were the way they were and how they could achieve such a level of skill.
"Brother?" Qu Zuo spoke up.
"What?" Qu You asked.
"This city is so big, and it involves so many people. If the two of us investigate together, it will be too slow!" Qu Zuo asked, "Why don't we split up and investigate separately?"
"No way!" Qu You shook his head without hesitation. "Don't underestimate these soldiers. Their cultivation is only slightly lower than ours. If we're surrounded by them, we won't be able to escape! We must look after each other!"
"But," Qu Zuo, "Even if the two of us are together, we still can't escape if we're surrounded!"
"Huh?" Qu You. It seemed so!
"However, if we split into two groups, the investigation will be twice as fast, allowing us to find out the truth in the shortest amount of time and leave!" Qu Zuo continued, "As long as our stay is short enough, the chances of us running into trouble will be minimized!"
"You make a good point!" Qu You pondered for a long time before finally nodding, then raised his phone. "In that case, let's investigate separately, but not completely separately. You need to contact me regularly every day!"
"Good!" Qu Zuo nodded excitedly. Great Chu, the truth of this world, here I come!