In launching the Outstanding Cultivation Talent Initiative, Wei Yuan had far-reaching calculations. Most Scenery Command experts guarded territories of their own and were bound to vast clans, unable to uproot themselves easily; thus, most would choose to wait and watch at the start.
Dharma idols, however, were far more mobile. Many dharma idols not only drifted from place to place, but some had even turned bandit in the wilds. In addition, those dharma idols stuck halfway up the ladder in prominent clans with no hope of advancement were easily swayed by Qingming.
To high-level cultivators, immortal silver was far less persuasive than spiritual pellets, which was why Wei Yuan had put forward something all dharma idols understood: the Haohua Pellet. Originally created in bygone years by the Three Immortals, this pellet possessed overbearing potency. Even now, over three thousand years later, other sects were still playing catch-up with the Palace of Grand Beginning when it came to cultivation pellets for dharma idols.
Back then, Wei Yuan had set a benchmark for the world's mortals by ensuring they could eat meat; today, Wei Yuan intended to set a standard for all dharma idols across the realm with spiritual pellets, letting them see what they were truly worth.
Perhaps only one out of every hundred dharma idols across the realm would defect to Qingming, but the remaining ninety-nine would most likely demand more from their clans. If the clans refused or couldn't afford to pay, hearts and minds would scatter.
The Great Baohua Pure Land had always had the most cultivators. Chan cultivators had the advantage of pure hearts and few desires, with low daily cultivation demands. Now, Wei Yuan was preparing to reignite their desires. It remained to be seen whether the Pure Land would match him.
As for the immense expenditure this would incur for Qingming, Wei Yuan could well afford it. Having newly acquired two immortal remains, Qingming gained hundreds of thousands of mu of fresh spiritual fields, all of which could be used to grow spiritual rice and immortal medicine. It was more than enough to sustain the demands of several hundred additional dharma idols, with plenty left to spare.
In this game, Wei Yuan was playing with his cards face-up. He had considered it carefully: even if he stood on the opposing side, there was simply no countermeasure. Only two paths could work. The first was to rely on faith, but wasn't the greatest faith precisely ensuring that mortals lived better lives and cultivators could advance further along the Dao? Therefore, any "faith" here could only be an evil cult or ignorant brainwashing.
The second path was an information blockade—keeping one's own people entirely in the dark about the whole matter. If they didn't know, hearts wouldn't waver.
Yet at the level of a dharma idol, an individual was an upper-middle figure in any faction or among the Nine States. In aristocratic clans, they could serve as elders; in the Nine States, they could hold fourth- or fifth-rank posts. No ruler could impose a total blackout on people of that caliber.
Then, with a sweep of his brush, Wei Yuan approved a sum of one hundred thousand liang of immortal silver in a single breath for the Qingming Development Bureau. The Qingming Development Bureau was operating with increasing efficiency; in the shortest possible time, this money would make every corner of Great Tang, within and without the immortal sects, and every county and township aware that such an event had occurred: Qingming was recruiting worthy talents across the world at ten times the price.
Wei Yuan left plenty of margin in his plan. Even if he only recruited a third of the target, it would be more than enough to meet the grand array's substitution needs, and True Monarch Xuanyue wouldn't have to soldier on without complaint.
Having settled this major affair, it should continue to cause grief for Great Baohua uninterrupted for a good long while. Afterwards, Wei Yuan casually leafed through the court affairs of Western Jin.
The King of Jin had once established several secret services under various names, but their nature was largely identical, essentially handling the same kind of business as the Eastern and Western Depots.
Ever since Wei Yuan was enfeoffed as the King of Wei, these secret bureaus had tactfully copied all their reports and sent them to him. When Wei Yuan swept across the Jin lands and sent the Lu clan into steady retreat, all the secret bureaus tacitly presented their reports to Wei Yuan first, and only made a copy to present to the King of Jin several days later.
Wei Yuan found this fence-sitting behavior rather convenient.
The contents of the secret memorials submitted by the secret services were largely the same: which officials had gathered for drinks today, which official's hobbies had suddenly shifted yesterday, and so forth.
Having read through many of these secret memorials, Wei Yuan noticed a trend: the number of Western Jin officials developing an interest in flowers, birds, fish, and insects had noticeably surged recently, to the point where the price of birds had multiplied several times over, while the price of fighting crickets had directly tacked on an extra zero.
Then Wei Yuan discovered that an old acquaintance from years past, Li Weisheng, had also joined the ranks of bird-rearers and cricket-fighters. In Wei Yuan's recollection, Li Weisheng possessed decent cultivation talent and was even better at officialdom. Glancing back at the secret memorial, sure enough, Li Weisheng had already climbed to the high station of standard second rank, on par with the Ministers of the Six Ministries.
When he ought to have been riding high on soaring ambition, why had he gone home to raise birds?
With questions stirred, Wei Yuan's divine sense accessed all related dossiers. In the span of a single cup of tea, he understood the whole story.
As it turned out, the territory currently governed by Western Jin actually consisted of merely six commanderies surrounding the royal capital. Of the rest, the majority was held in Wei Yuan's hands, with minor portions belonging to the Northern Frontier war theater and the Xu family of Ningxi.
The Xu family had actively withdrawn, relinquishing all the territory to which the Qingming domain had expanded—a total surrender of four commanderies.
The Xu family had done even more than that. With Xu Lanshan stepping forward, they had left behind only a meager force in the south—barely enough for policing, not even sufficient for defense. Then, pulling out the bulk of their private forces and conscripting many guards and retainers from prominent households, they amassed several hundred thousand stalwart troops and dispatched them all to the northern frontier to fight the Liao.
The Xu family's posture was crystal clear: they no longer wanted their southern lands, and whatever they lost, they would seize anew from the non-human tribes. Put this way, it was Wei Yuan who felt a touch embarrassed. He could only allocate a consignment of weaponry, grain, and fodder to support the Xu family's campaign against the tribes. Such a gesture had to be made, after all.
Thus, the Western Jin bureaucrats, who had originally governed two provinces comprising tens of commanderies, suddenly found that the workload on their hands was less than a tenth of what it used to be. Naturally, they were all bored out of their minds.
Yet while the civil officials dared to cross the King of Jin, none dared oppose the King of Wei. Precedents were laid bare before them, after all. Not only would this man truly kill, but his method involved throwing oneself into a cesspool. Worse yet, there was no peace even in death; they would be written into popular novellas to be mocked for who knew how many years.
Consequently, the Western Jin officials, Li Weisheng included, had nothing to do. Yet the Western Jin treasury was richer than ever before. The quarterly tax silver, money, and grain submitted by Wei Yuan were so plentiful that the King of Jin sometimes doubted his own eyes. With the state treasury flush, the salaries of all officials were naturally raised, substantially increasing their nominal income. Even though their total revenue had still dropped drastically, it brought some measure of solace to their hearts.
Wei Yuan had quite a good impression of Li Weisheng. Then he recalled another fellow named Chen Dao, who had once given Wei Yuan a very rough time.
The provincial commander partnered with Chen Dao seemed to be named Yue Jinshan, a man who possessed considerable skill in marching and waging war. Back then, had Wei Yuan not forged the fire guns and held the young Xu scions in his grasp, defeating Yue's Northern Frontier Iron Cavalry would not have been so easy.
Wei Yuan grew interested and continued browsing the records. He discovered that Chen Dao was now an idle fourth-rank official, spending most of his prime years at home living like a pensioner. Yue Jinshan still led troops on the northern frontier, but his title had been demoted to a general of ad-hoc rank, only a hair above a vice-general.
At a glance, it was obvious both of them had been dragged down by him.
Yet with life-and-death fighting against the Liao Clan raging daily on the northern frontier, although Yue Jinshan was nominally only a general of ad-hoc rank, he commanded as many as one hundred and fifty thousand troops. Many of his nominal superiors heeded his every word instead, becoming his de facto subordinates.
Wei Yuan had known back then that Yue Jinshan possessed genuine talent, and seeing it now, that remained true.
Wei Yuan pondered for a moment, thinking it was truly a waste of talent to let such officials idle away their days.
...
The Western Jin royal capital was blanketed in swirling snow.
It was barely halfway through the afternoon when Li Weisheng left his yamen and returned home. The two giant macaws he had recently acquired were spirit birds, each measuring a full four feet in length, truly magnificent and imposing.
The pair were carnivores, and Li Weisheng worried that clumsy servants might end up being eaten by them. At any rate, the yamen had no business to handle and was practically idle to the point of smoking. Today, he was actually heading home rather late. On normal days, he would have lunch, take a brief nap, and then return home to tease his birds.
Passing through the manor gates, Li Weisheng headed straight for the Bird Garden. Stepping into the garden courtyard, he saw the two giant macaws strutting about. Just as delight welled up in Li Weisheng's heart, he suddenly spotted another figure beside the birds.
He had seen this figure several times in earlier years. Seeing it again out of nowhere, his legs instantly turned to jelly. Cold sweat broke out wave after wave, drenching his padded robe in the blink of an eye.
Having spent years steeped in officialdom, once Li Weisheng recovered his wits, he didn't care whether the figure was truly the man he suspected. He immediately scrambled forward and dropped to his knees. "Your humble subordinate kowtows before the King of Wei! May the King of Wei live forever, his years rivaling Heaven itself!"
The figure turned around; it was indeed Wei Yuan.
Wei Yuan smiled faintly. "Long time no see. Lord Li remains as sharp as ever. It seems you still desire to accomplish great deeds!"
Cold sweat poured down Li Weisheng's brow at once. He hurriedly said, "How could I dare! This subordinate has always been utterly loyal to Your Majesty the King of Wei and to the Sacred King, without the slightest disloyalty!"
Noncommittal, Wei Yuan said, "Has Lord Li ever thought about serving as an official in another country? Western Jin is far too small a pond; it wastes your talents."
Li Weisheng's face turned deathly pale, sweat beading across his forehead. "This subordinate does not know what crime he has committed to suffer banishment. In bygone days, I believe I was still of some use to Your Highness, and over these years I have kept to my station, never crossing the line by half an inch."
Wei Yuan remained silent for a moment. Seeing that the man was sufficiently terrified, he finally said, "A talent like Lord Li—how could I banish you? Ah, though it does bear some resemblance to banishment. I intend to pen a letter recommending you to enter official service in Eastern Jin. What do you think?"
Li Weisheng immediately replied, "The King of Wei commands, how could I dare disobey? Only, I wonder what duties I am to undertake upon arriving in Eastern Jin?"
"There are quite a few things to do. I will explain them to you one by one." Wei Yuan walked into the study with Li Weisheng and spoke with him in great detail. Only when the streetlamps began to light up did Wei Yuan take his leave.
Li Weisheng packed his bags that very night. At the morning court the next day, he submitted his resignation to the King of Jin, shocking the gathered ministers. The King of Jin asked no questions, directly approving Li Weisheng's retirement to his hometown and even bestowing a generous pension.
The entire affair reeked of strangeness, but ever since the King of Wei had appeared in Western Jin, had bizarre occurrences ever been in short supply? Hadn't someone abducted the Left Prime Minister's granddaughter and fled to the State of Ji a few years ago?
Whenever many officials thought of that affair, they recalled hearing that the Left Prime Minister's granddaughter was flourishing in the State of Ji. The Left Prime Minister, however, had long since been stripped of his office, demoted straight down to the ninth rank, and sent back to the countryside to live out his retirement.
Having received the royal decree, Li Weisheng departed for Eastern Jin the following day, arriving at the Eastern Jin royal capital half a month later. When King Xuan of Jin heard of Li Weisheng's arrival, he was overjoyed and went to the courier station in person to welcome him. Li Weisheng naturally wept tears of gratitude and knelt prostrate for a long time.
Sovereign and minister played the drama of parched earth meeting sweet rain to the fullest. King Xuan directly bestowed a grand mansion before returning to the palace, eagerly waiting for Li Weisheng to attend court the next morning and present his strategy for governing the realm!
The following morning, the civil and military officials gathered. Under the gaze of all, Li Weisheng stepped into the audience hall with an imposing and dignified bearing. At the sight of him, the officials were deeply impressed, thinking to themselves that while this fellow was unknown, his appearance was undeniably striking—he possessed the face of a capable minister of the ages.
After the formal courtesies, Li Weisheng cleared his throat and proclaimed the core of his governing strategy:
"A court packed with the virtuous!"
Chapter 1174