Chapter 345
345 Chapter 344-establishment of the Jinyiwei
If the inventory was emptied, it was li Shiwen’s fault. However, the decline in the entire dynasty’s income couldn’t be completely blamed on li Shiwen.
The three months after li Shiwen’s death were turbulent.
With the 20000 cultivators of the Feiyun state in the Yan capital, the public security seemed to be fine on the surface. But even so, the turmoil, including the rebellion of the three great clans, had caused a huge problem in the operation of the entire imperial court.
Outside of Yan city, those who did not belong to the core of the Imperial court did not seem to be in the center of the political Whirlpool. However, it was precisely because they were not at the core that the news received from all parties were backward. There were even various rumors, which made it more troublesome.
Furthermore, the Imperial court had been in a state of half-control during this period of time. If the government’s orders weren’t clear, then the foreign countries would go out of control.
Due to many factors, the Imperial court’s income had decreased sharply, which was a very normal thing.
In fact, if he didn’t hurry up and start running the Imperial court’s own administrative system and maintain his rule in the name of the legitimate court, the income of the system would probably fall rapidly, let alone restoring the income system of the Imperial court.
However, there was some good news.
Although the Imperial court’s inventory was small and their finances were in a state of semi-collapse, there was still a solution.
Some of them were even readily available.
For example, the wealth of the three great clans.
They were loyal to the royal family-of course, this was only for the Li royal family, and even for the mo family.
In that case, when li Shiwen was planning for a breakthrough and was short of money, would he look for the four families for help?
They would definitely do so, and the four great families would definitely give it to them. Apart from that, when historical literature truly began to break through, regardless of whether it was to stir up emotions in the Wei Kingdom or to distribute military expenses to Yunxiao sect or the Imperial Guards, they would naturally have to fork out money. With the Imperial court providing a large portion of the resources, the four great clans would definitely have contributed a lot as well.
But now, after their failure, these families had suffered a great loss. Even after the house was ransacked, they did not manage to get much money.
But no matter what, they were all wealthy families with deep foundations in the country of Yan. A lean man’s camel was bigger than a horse, so he would always be able to gain something.
Just from the properties of the three families in Yan city, they had earned about 200000 spiritual stones.
Of course, not all of them were cash. Most of them were resources. But even so, to the Imperial court that was like a dried-up pond, it was still a rain, even if it was only a light rain.
It had to be said that to a certain extent, this had solved the urgent problem.
But this was not the root of the problem.
If he really wanted to solve the financial problems of the Imperial court and gradually digest the power of the entire imperial court for his own use, it was necessary to increase income and reduce expenditure.
In terms of conservation, it was necessary to make a bold and decisive reform. Taking advantage of this chaos, the redundant personnel would be abolished and the organization simplified, which would save a lot of manpower expenses; It was also a means to carefully inspect all kinds of construction projects, and simply stop them if there was no need or sell them to the local forces.
The most important thing was to start negotiations with Yunxiao sect.
The resources and spirit stones that the Imperial court provided to Yunxiao sect every year amounted to a staggering 1.5 million spirit stones.
It was impossible to stop the supply. In the past, even li Shiwen did not dare to stop supplying, and the Lu clan could not possibly turn their backs on Yunxiao sect.
But after all, the relationship between the two sides was now in a ‘honeymoon period’. They had just completed a relatively large cooperation, and there were some feelings between them. In addition, the Imperial court was indeed facing some practical difficulties, so there was always a possibility of negotiation.
There was a result to this negotiation, and some progress was made, but it was not particularly ideal.
The Lu family suggested that they would temporarily postpone the tribute for the past one to two years and slowly return it in two years, but it was rejected by Yunxiao sect. The war with the Wei Kingdom hadn’t lasted long, and it hadn’t really developed to the point of an all-out war. Moreover, the two sides had spent most of the time in a confrontation. The real battle had only lasted for a few days.
However, the battles that took place over the past few days were extremely intense. The fact that almost all of the elite Imperial Guards of Great Yan Dynasty had been killed was also clear. Although the Imperial Guards were almost completely annihilated, mainly because Yunxiao sect intentionally sent them to their deaths, it was still a real battle after all. If the intensity of the battle was not at a certain level, it would not have ended up like this.
Yunxiao sect was holding up the larger battlefield after all, and they had expended a lot of resources. If the Imperial court wanted to cut off their supply, they would definitely not do it.
To put it bluntly, the main reason why Yunxiao sect supported the Lu family’s Ascension was that they hoped that the Lu family would ‘do things’. Of course, this so-called ‘doing things’ was to provide Yunxiao sect.
Cutting off the supply was not an option.
However, the Yunxiao sect was not completely unreasonable. They also knew that the Lu clan had just taken over the Imperial court and was facing real difficulties.
Hence, he agreed to reduce a portion of the credit and make up for it later.
However, no matter how much he tried to save money, there were two aspects that he could not save money on.
First, the Lu clan had to put in effort to maintain their direct ruling rights in Jizhou and Jinzhou. This depended on the situation in each region. It was impossible to cut across everything in one go. Some places might need to be resolved by sending troops, while some places only needed to send officials with sufficient skill.
The second and more important point was the military expenditure.
The Imperial court had allocated funds to the various garrisons in various places. Otherwise, there would be major problems in the area. Although the strength of the local garrisons was not very strong, and they were a mix of good and bad, the reform could only be discussed in the future. For now, stability was still the priority.
As for the central Army, which the Imperial court could directly report to, they needed to invest more in it. In the past, the central Army of Great Yan referred to the Imperial Army of Yulin royal guards. But now, they had all been wiped out.
However, this situation could not last for long. From the perspective of the dynasty’s central level, the first thing to do was to rebuild the central Army.
The Imperial court still had to have its own armed forces.
The remnants of the Imperial Guards only had a few thousand people left. A small portion of them had been loyal to the Li family in Li Xuanhao’s case and were sent to the guillotine. In the end, there were less than two thousand people left. Moreover, these two thousand people, regardless of their strength, their morale was also extremely low.
But it was not hopeless.
The main reason for their low morale was their confusion about the future.
Lu chaoxi had already worked hard to solve this problem. On one hand, he personally met with the remaining Imperial Army soldiers and then appointed a direct descendant of the Lu clan to enter the Imperial Army.
It was none other than Lu Weiwen.
Weiwen had won the respect of the Imperial Army with the great sword in her hand. She had won over some people with her identity as the new royal family and her rather forthright personality.
Of course, no matter how well they did in this area, the Imperial Guards were only left with a mere 2000 men.
Stabilizing the morale of the Army was one thing, expanding the Army was another.
With these 2000 Imperial Guards as the backbone, Lu chaoxi issued an order to recruit soldiers in and around Yan city. The minimum requirement was to be at the late-stage of Qi refining. The treatment they received, compared to the Imperial Army of the past, not only did not decrease, it even improved.
There was still some attraction to this. After all, many people wanted to enter the old Imperial Army, but they couldn’t. Even though the people of Yan city were still in shock and suspicion after the Lu family took over the government, and even though many people did not openly oppose the Lu family, they still missed the Li family.
However, no matter what, there were still some people who were not interested in the Li royal family to begin with, or those who simply looked down on the ruler-this might actually be more mainstream. After all, immortal cultivators were different from ordinary people. The mentality of being self-oriented and self-respecting was actually more mainstream.
In addition, cultivators often had long lifespans. As they lived, the mortals they knew in the past would change one after another, and the concept of family and country would become weaker.
It was only natural that such cultivators did not care about the Imperial court.
However, they didn’t care about their home country, but their interests.
The Imperial court’s offer to recruit new members of the Imperial Army was enough to move many Qi condensation cultivators. In addition, even some Foundation establishment cultivators would receive a corresponding price. This profit was very good.
Furthermore, after becoming part of the Imperial Army, the camp itself was located on a fifth-tier branch of the spirit vein in the capital of Yan. If they were on duty to guard the palace, they would have the opportunity to cultivate at the level 6 spirit vein.
However, it didn’t mean that the Imperial Army would recruit people just because they had reached this standard.
There was still a need for a Political Review. Those who wanted to enter the Imperial Guards had to at least have their backgrounds investigated. They couldn’t commit any crimes, and they couldn’t have too deep a connection with the three great clans. Even if they didn’t lean towards the Lu clan, they had to at least be neutral.
For those above the foundation establishment stage, as long as they had the right background, there would be no problem in recruiting them. Qi refining cultivators were different. Not every late-stage Qi refining cultivator with a clean background would be accepted. There would be too many of them, and it would not be a good thing for the finances of the Imperial court, which were already under a lot of pressure.
There were only three thousand slots for the new imperial Army.
It was clearly unrealistic to restore the Imperial Army to its peak of thirty thousand. Lu chaoxi planned to increase the number of troops to 10000.
Including the 2000 old Imperial Army soldiers, that would be 5000. The remaining five thousand would be transferred from the Feiyun state Army that was stationed in the Yan capital.
The Feiyun state’s group of cultivators was about to return. They had been in Yan city for almost half a year. This Army of cultivators was the elite of the Feiyun state’s cultivation world. There were direct descendants of a large family clan and core disciples of the Qingfeng sect. They could be organized to fight, but they couldn’t defend outside for a long time, as that was not suitable.
But they couldn’t just go back all at once. Lu chaoxi was going to be the Emperor in Yan city. He had to have enough power that he could trust and be reliable enough.
Under the current circumstances, what could be more reassuring than the cultivators of the Feiyun state?
There were many people from the Lu clan who would stay in Yan city to work. A large area around the Imperial Palace, which used to be the Li clan’s territory, was now occupied by the Lu clan. In addition, many cultivators of the Qingfeng sect had also been hired to fill many of the missing official positions in the Imperial court.
There were thousands of people in these two groups.
This time, they even added 5000 cultivators into the Imperial Army.
Other than the ordinary cultivators, Lu chaoxi, the Emperor, would naturally stay in Yan city. Apart from him, Ming Chao would also stay. After Yan Ling returned to the Feiyun state to deal with some Affairs, she would also stay in the Yan capital for a relatively long time. Hai Sande was also invited, and he would become the Imperial censor of Great Yan, one of the three Dukes.
In this case, it would not be a big problem for four golden core cultivators to hold the fort in Yan city. If there were any problems that golden core cultivators could not solve, Lu Qing could rush over to help since he had the resurrection exchange tab.
In terms of military power, other than the reconstruction of the Imperial Army, there was another area that required more investment.
Lu Wenen was in charge of this.
A considerable portion of the court’s reliable forces had been mobilized to set up a new department called the ‘Embroidered Uniform Guard’. This name was undoubtedly given by Lu Qing.
This was a special agency. Under Lu Qing’s guidance, Lu chaoxi had many new ideas. In the future, the Supreme Court’s functions would be reduced. The arrest Department and the judgment Department would be mainly responsible for work related to public security.
As for the duties of supervising the officials, collecting external intelligence, and carrying out special missions, they would be stripped from the Supreme Court and handed over to the brocade guard.
After the establishment of the embroidered uniform guards, their first task was to work with the officials that the central court had sent to Ji and Jin provinces to sort out local government affairs. One in the open and one in the dark, they cleaned up the local situation.
The officials on the surface did not encounter any difficulties. It was naturally best if they could solve the problem directly. The Jinyiwei that followed only needed to do some intelligence gathering work.
However, if the official on the surface did not succeed, then the Jinyiwei would have to take action.
This was actually the most important task of the entire imperial court: He wanted to regain control of the two provinces that were directly managed by the Imperial court in the past as soon as possible.
In order to ensure that this goal could be smoothly achieved, the Imperial court, which had been reborn, was already operating at full speed.
Although there were many problems in the Imperial court, they could only sort them out as they worked.
During this period of time, Lu chaoxi had a deep understanding of how difficult it was to be an Emperor. When he sent his younger brother Lu Chaohe off, he complained, ”
“If I had known earlier, I would have insisted that you be the Emperor!”