"Your Highness, aren't you going back?"
On the bustling streets of Liuzhou, the palace Yun Niang followed closely behind Xiao Mingxue, Xiao Mingxue wandered around like a curious child. As it was getting dark, the palace maid had to urge her on.
"Time really flies!" The bright-eyed Xiao Mingxue looked at the sky. Although it was winter, with short days and long nights, and it got dark quickly, she had come out for a stroll before noon. How could time seem to have flown by?
The palace maid rolled her eyes. "Someone like the Princess Consort spends half a day asking about every new thing. There are so many novel things in Jiangnan, how can the Princess Consort possibly have enough time?"
"Just curious," Xiao Mingxue said with a playful stick-out smile, which startled the palace maid.
After awakening her bloodline, this ancestor had become incredibly cold, but in the few days since arriving in Jiangnan, she has melted away like ice and snow, becoming as soft as spring rain, and occasionally revealing the playfulness that a young girl should have.
The palace maid felt a pang of tenderness in her heart.
She originally intended to follow the princess to Jiangnan, find a local scholar or military officer to marry, and quit this servant job as soon as possible.
But now, after a few days, she found herself increasingly reluctant to part with it. Such a bright pearl, radiating such a soft glow—how could a woman like her bear to part with it?
No wonder His Highness is in such a good mood every day.
The palace maid looked up at the sky, which seemed to have been washed clean, and took a deep breath. Compared to the eerie capital, this place was the complete opposite. She had lived in the royal city for so many years and had never seen a place like this. Even the street vendors who fried scallion pancakes Heavenly Capital looked cheerful. The people here always had smiles on their faces.
It's almost obvious without even investigating that the people here are doing very well.
Only when one lives well can one have such a vibrant spirit, such a gentle smile, and in such a place with so little hostility, coupled with picturesque prosperity and beauty, this is not just a secluded paradise, it is simply a prosperous heaven.
"Your Highness, there's still plenty of time. You Heavenly Capital if you want to go out. If we don't go back now, Grandma will worry again."
Upon hearing the name "old lady, "Xiao Mingxue smiled sheepishly. Before coming, she had been thinking about how to get along with Chen Qing's mother. According to the intelligence, Chen Qing was raised by his mother, so her status was naturally very high. If she was difficult to get along with, how could she tolerate and compromise?
But it turned out that she had worried too much. The old lady wasn't so formal at all; in fact, she was quite enthusiastic, asking about her well-being as if she was afraid she would run away. Although it was a bit of an exaggeration, Xiao Mingxue had to admit that she quite liked interacting with her this way.
There's no concept of status; she's just an old mother eagerly awaiting her son's child, and a shy new bride.
"That's right. Mother said she would make old duck soup tonight when she left, so I can't keep her waiting." With that, she hurried back home.
The palace maid followed behind, smiling slightly. The princess had become much more aloof after losing her mother. The old lady's warmth and concern were genuine, which perfectly filled the void in the princess's Central Plains. The old lady was a big reason why the princess was so happy now.
What a lucky little girl.
Neither of them noticed that a young man in white had been following them all along. This young man was none other than Wei Gongcheng, the Liuzhou Underworld City.
Seeing Xiao Mingxue hurrying home, Wei Gongcheng nodded slightly, turned around, and suddenly arrived at the Liuzhou government office.
He wasn't deliberately following him; he just happened to see him and observed him for a moment.
To be honest, he was quite worried when he heard that Xiao Mingxue had awakened the Golden Crow Bloodline. Once the bloodline of the Xiao Household was awakened, they were all ambitious people. Now that the situation in Liuzhou is sensitive, if she, as a newly arrived matriarch, wanted to legitimately interfere in some matters of power, it was very likely to cause some unnecessary trouble.
Especially Chen Ying's part.
The military is out of the question, and the easiest target is Chen Ying's status and resources within the academy. However, in Wei Gongcheng's view, Chen Ying has done an excellent job, and the fact that the academy's dean is a top-tier sorcerer is extremely important. If Xiao Mingxue has any designs on him, then things will be really troublesome.
Because when political affairs involve the emperor's family matters, it puts foreign officials in an extremely difficult position.
Inside the government office, Chen Qing was already waiting in the main hall. Wei Gongcheng glanced at him and was slightly startled. All seven Underworld were present; this was probably no small matter to be discussed!
" Wei Gongcheng is here, please have a seat." Chen Qing casually pointed to a seat.
Wei Gongcheng bowed, then sat down in the spot the other person pointed to. He looked around, feeling a slightly complicated feeling in his heart.
Three years ago, I was a deputy general under Yuchi Peng. Although I was called a deputy general, everyone knew that I was just a servant, especially after I was crippled. When I was in the Yuchi Household, I was even looked down upon by regular servants.
Even if he hadn't become crippled back then, in the eyes of many powerful figures, he would probably still just be a capable servant.
Three years ago, this young man came to me and recruited me, promising to give me something that the Yuchi Household could not provide. At that time, I just wanted to escape the Yuchi Household and not live under someone else's roof. My original plan was to go to Jiangnan, find any excuse, and leave to support myself.
Unexpectedly, in just a few years, the young man fulfilled all the promises he had made back then.
Looking around, he saw that those sitting on equal footing with him were all important figures he had once only been able to look up to: Master Shen San, Second Master Shen —weren't they all figures of equal rank to the Nine Ministers of the Imperial Court?
Ziyue and Ao Zhen, a member of the ancient royal family, never discriminated against him when they were together. Although their eyes were indifferent, it was precisely because of this that he sat up straight, because he didn't know when, in their eyes, they were just like them.
He is the Liuzhou Underworld City, ranked first among the seven major Underworld, a figure that even the most powerful and wealthy families in the capital strive to curry favor with!
"Everyone's here. Let me first explain the current situation," Chen Qing said with a light cough. "In the past six months, there has been obvious unrest in the Central Plains. The power of demons and monsters in the world has expanded, and the capital's control over the Central Plains is weakening. The latest news is that the capital has even withdrawn educational officials from various regions and has also quietly withdrawn a lot of troops, clearly intending to abandon the clearing of some areas."
"Give up?" The others were fine, but Wei Gongcheng, who had grown up in the prosperous Great Jin, was a little taken aback.
He never imagined that one day the Great Jin would voluntarily give up its territory.
"That's normal. Things are different now than before. We have to make some choices regarding the capital." Chen Qing pointed to the ground, and a huge map appeared on the ground.
" The Central Plains region is vast. Even if it loses its northern and southern borders, its territory is still more than ten times the size of the Jiangnan. Such a vast territory, under the current circumstances, requires sufficient military force and sorcerers to maintain order, which the current royal family can no longer do."
Looking at the map, Wei Gongcheng thought for a moment and then understood the reason.
I suddenly understood why our lord was willing to spend countless resources to maintain such a large army in such a small area as Jiangnan!
The proportion of soldiers in Jiangnan is absolutely beyond my common sense. The size of the Battle God Army is now over a million, and the West Sea Army is approaching 300,000, not to mention the Door God Guard in the major cities and the Mountain God Guard in the mountains.
Taking Liuzhou as an example, there are more than 50,000 permanent Door God Guard in Liuzhou. As the largest granary and agricultural experimental base in Liuzhou, Great Azure Mountain now has a full-strength Mountain God Guard force of nearly 10,000 people.
In the past, the Great Jin Dynasty would never have dared to imagine that defending a single mountain would require ten thousand soldiers.
But yesterday, after hearing the news that the insect demons had attacked Qinghe Fourth Scroll, killing and injuring millions of people, he immediately understood his master's plan.
In this day and age, without sufficient military strength, how can we safeguard this prosperous and flourishing era?
The Great Jin Dynasty's army was once large enough to defend Great Jin territory, but things are different now. The demons have grown stronger, and large-scale demon incidents are becoming more frequent, making the main cities of various states unsafe. Many wealthy merchants are fleeing to the capital.
In this situation, consolidating military forces was a last resort for the imperial court, because further dispersing the forces would mean that nothing could be defended.
By consolidating military forces, the safety of the capital and surrounding important cities can at least be guaranteed. However, if the forces are dispersed further, and even the capital itself cannot be kept peaceful, the imperial family will truly lose all its prestige.
"I've called you here today to discuss two things," Chen Qing began. "First, whether to expand our territory; second, whether we should get involved in the Northern Wasteland affair!"