There was a fundamental difference between holding forty percent and sixty percent of a state's fortune. When wielding forty percent of the state fortune, in theory, the larger share still lay elsewhere. Whether Western Jin fared well or poorly, the consequences were mostly borne by others, and the benefits mostly belonged to others as well. Even if Western Jin fell, the karmic retribution would not land on Wei Yuan's head.
Now, however, things were completely different. The vast majority of both benefits and consequences would fall upon Wei Yuan, making it impossible to handle Western Jin's affairs from the posture of a bystander.
To Wei Yuan, Qingming's scale had already surpassed Western Jin, and he had no interest in serving as Western Jin's retired emperor. Within Qingming, a voice had also gradually emerged, arguing that their own lives were growing better by the day and there was no need for external expansion. Expanding would only mean cleaning up messes for barren lands where birds didn't even shit—there was simply no point. Once this sentiment surfaced, it quickly gathered many supporters.
For Wei Yuan, there was also a practical problem: the Martial Ancestor's grand design. Taking sixty percent of Western Jin's state fortune would inevitably draw him into the Martial Ancestor's arrangements. In an era where Great Tang's karmic destiny was already exhausted, this was clearly not a good thing.
Wei Yuan strolled through the royal capital, attempting to return this portion of the state fortune, only to discover that the King of Jin was already in the twilight of his years. Stripping away the state fortune had severely depleted his vitality; he could no longer shoulder so much of it.
Should he transfer the state fortune to several of the princes, then?
Wei Yuan ran through the candidates in his mind, only to conclude that each and every one was an inept Adou whom nothing could prop up. By contrast, the Prince of Chu, whom Wei Yuan had not thought much of back then, was actually head and shoulders above the rest among these princes.
The princes were all unfit for great responsibilities. Weighing it from every angle, Wei Yuan decided he still could not entrust the state fortune to them. That would be grossly irresponsible to the people of Western Jin. Furthermore, with the state fortune resting on their shoulders, should these princes do anything foolish, Western Jin would be struck first and foremost by natural disasters and pestilence, and the ones left taking the blame and suffering the blow would still be the common folk.
Sacrificing millions of common people for the glory and honor of a single person was something Wei Yuan felt incapable of doing, nor would he permit anyone else to do so within the scope of his power.
If such a person possessed immense might, able to move mountains and overturn seas, or possessed boundless wisdom and could single-handedly propel an entire era forward, then one might weigh the pros and cons. But as for these fellows who rose solely through bloodline, Wei Yuan felt it best to forget it.
Besides, looking at the general trend, whichever fellow took the throne would merely be a last monarch presiding over a dynasty's demise, making it all the more impossible for Wei Yuan to let them bring disaster upon the common people.
In Wei Yuan's mind, the map of Western Jin was revised once more. Originally, the thirty commanderies of the southern border, the central region, and the Lü family's territory had retained Western Jin's color, but now they were all replaced by Qingming's color. The royal capital and the northern borderlands were also painted with Qingming's color, leaving only the palace compound and several princely estates in the royal capital still bearing Western Jin's hue.
"More work to do..." Wei Yuan sighed, his spirits lifting sharply.
Fully integrating Western Jin into the Qingming system rather than treating it merely as a market for dumping goods—this was a monumental transition.
Originally, nearly thirty commanderies of Western Jin had been under Wei Yuan's governance, and the earliest southern five commanderies had been cultivated for several decades, but Wei Yuan had only developed agriculture and mining in those regions, without building even a single workshop.
Yet although Wei Yuan had not developed infrastructure or industry in these territories, he had ensured an abundant food supply and implemented a basic grain security system across the controlled areas, granting every impoverished household the right to purchase a set quota of grain at low prices.
Under Wei Yuan's administration, Western Jin's population had experienced explosive growth over several decades, and these thirty commanderies now held over two billion people. Raising the living standards of so many people was another colossal undertaking.
Yet from another perspective, as long as these people were brought up to Qingming's current level, each person would contribute at least two strands of karmic luck—which amounted to several billion strands of human luck!
Looking to the future, among these people there could emerge hundreds of millions of Body Castings, tens of millions of templates, tens of thousands of dharma idols, and Scenery Commands...
Scenery Command depended on innate talent, and if there were too many, heaven and earth could not sustain them. If nothing else, even if the entire land of Western Jin were turned into a heart-manifestation world, it could only support a little over a hundred Scenery Commands and seven or eight immortals—and that was assuming there were no peerless geniuses like Wei Yuan, Zhang Sheng, or Baoyun among them.
After all, Qingming spanned ten thousand li and was incomparably prosperous, yet it was only just enough to accommodate the heart-manifestation world of Wei Yuan alone.
In that instant, Wei Yuan once again felt the urge to remake heaven and earth on an even grander stage, his blood surging straight to the crown of his head. But once the excitement faded, what remained in his mind was an endless mountain of work.
Wei Yuan's figure vanished as he returned to Qingming Immortal City and began arranging the new tasks. At the very least, Qingming's workshops of terrifying scale could now run at full capacity.
By the time Wei Yuan drafted the comprehensive master plan and arranged its implementation step by step, it was already late autumn in the eleventh year of Zhaoning.
On this day, autumn leaves fluttered outside Wei Yuan's window, each leaf like gold. The west wind sheared golden specks into drifts; the evening glow dyed a thousand woods. Parting from the branches to dance languidly, they fell to the earth with crisp rustles. Where cloud shadows drifted, light and shade shifted in an instant; the sky was high and the air crisp, capturing the very soul of autumn.
Although Qingming experienced perpetual summer all year round, Wei Yuan still missed the passage of distinct seasons, so he adjusted the Immortal City's formations to allow four clear seasons within its perimeter.
Wei Yuan's divine sense sat enthroned within the Splendor of the Many Realms. Before him were several distinctly different macro-scenes, each pieced together from numerous micro-scenes. First was Eastern Jin, where the floating road continued to advance forward, this time protected by a permanent garrison of five hundred thousand troops stationed at its terminus. Before the martial aura of five hundred thousand Qingming troops, any Scenery Command cultivator would have to take a detour.
Along the completed stretches of the floating road, floating skiffs whizzed past incessantly, ferrying immense volumes of materiel back and forth through this grand artery. Now, over twenty commanderies in southern Eastern Jin fell entirely within the radiating reach of the floating avenue. Imperial kin and noble lords vied with one another to do business with Qingming, scheming and undercutting each other to drive raw material prices into the dirt just to secure Qingming orders.
The second macro-scene was the various territories of the Shaman Domain, primarily the various Strength Shaman tribes.
Over several decades, relying on the ceaseless inflow and outflow of Qingming goods, the Desolate Ancestor Tribe had transformed from a primitive border hunting tribe of yesteryear into a gigantic tribe specializing in caravans and logistics, ranking foremost in wealth among all tribes in the shaman realm.
The Desolate Ancestor Tribe's shaman population had expanded from fewer than ten million initially to several hundred million, along with over a billion slaves.
With the shaman population growing, powerful experts naturally multiplied accordingly. The Great Desolate Sun had never expected that in his twilight years he could still amass enough resources to take another step forward and advance to late-stage Desolate Shaman. Tianyu, an exemplar of being forcefully built up by resources, had likewise advanced to mid-stage Desolate Shaman.
In addition, the Desolate Ancestor Tribe had produced three new Desolate Shamans, married in two Desolate Shamans, taken in six Desolate Shamans as matrilocal husbands, and absorbed several more after annexing over eighty small tribes. Thus, the tribe now boasted a total of seventeen Desolate Shamans, including one at perfection.
Pity that the one at perfection was a female shaman and originally the chieftain of a small tribe, whose ugliness was so appalling to the shamans that even Tianyu couldn't bring himself to touch her. What was more, this ugly shaman had extraordinarily haughty standards and refused to settle for less, insisting on finding someone stronger than herself.
The third macro-scene was the Liao domain, and the fourth was the Mountain Folk.
The Liao domain was placid and tranquil. Within the Three Rivers Khan Tent, worldly spiritual energy was scarce, making it difficult to yield high-rank cultivation resources, and spirit mines were rare; yet mundane ores degraded from spirit mines were remarkably abundant. Furthermore, after Qingming assimilated otherworldly technology, its purification and smelting techniques for various metallic elements improved drastically. Many minerals that had been entirely useless in the past became critical resources in Qingming.
In the Liao domain, where the Metal and Earth elements predominated, subterranean ore veins crisscrossed the land. In the past, however, these veins were of no use to high-level cultivators, so they had remained buried deep underground, treated merely as ordinary earth.
In Qingming's eyes, however, these were all treasures. Yu Zhizhuo had even personally trekked north and south of the snow mountains, surveying and discovering quite a few major deposits that Qingming was short on.
Compared to the steady development of the Liao domain, the Domain of the Mountain Folk was far more boisterous.
From the Mountain Folk tribes within his sphere of influence, Wei Yuan had carefully screened and selected Mountain Folk elites willing to swear fealty—termed "Mountain Elites." Naturally, this contingent of Mountain Folk was later universally dubbed "Mountain Traitors" by the other Mountain Folk.
After their training, Wei Yuan assigned these graduated Mountain Traitors to Hule Gao'en, turning them into the backbone of his army.
The moment Hule Gao'en led his troops back to the tribe, he immediately launched a massive recruitment drive, gathering all Prophet faction believers willing to enlist. He then went around picking fights and stirring up trouble, instigating disputes with multiple tribes until it finally erupted into a holy war between the Lineage faction and the Prophet faction.
In a holy war, no means were off limits, and cruelty was a vital instrument for spreading terror. Thus, shooting down, beheading, and dismembering believers of the rival sect became commonplace occurrences.
Facing Hule Gao'en's incessant provocations, more and more members of the Lineage faction joined the holy war. But how could traditional Mountain Folk tribes possibly match Hule Gao'en, who had "happened upon" countless pieces of Qingming equipment in the desolate mountains? In almost every engagement, they were routed within a clash or two.
As for Hule Gao'en himself, he had lived a complex life and possessed exceptional talent, bearing the natural bearing of an ambitious hegemon to begin with. On top of that, Wei Yuan had deliberately stationed an entire staff team at his side, as well as direct disciples of the two Arhats, Miluoguangjia and Duowensiting, ensuring any intelligence could be relayed to the rear immediately.
Yet Qingming's remote control also turned Hule Gao'en into something like a marionette. Every major matter had to be reported to the Daoist Court, after which he would receive directives. All overarching strategies had to follow orders strictly, leaving him with freedom only at the tactical level.
Yet the effectiveness of this puppet control was exceptionally evident. Before Qingming's all-dimensional, multi-tiered warfare doctrine, the Mountain Folk tribes proved utterly brittle, collapsing at the first touch.
Hule Gao'en's offensive advanced like splitting bamboo. He swept through roughly one major tribe a month, pushing forward several thousand li in just over a year, flattening dozens of large and small tribes, and incorporating tens of millions of Mountain Folk into the territory. By the later stages of the campaign, Hule Gao'en was even revered as a god of war by many hostile tribes.
Despite having little real authority, Hule Gao'en dared not utter a single complaint. Before this deployment, Wei Yuan had made it crystal clear to him: his ability was only a minor factor in why he was being used; the main reason was sentimentality for past acquaintance. Given Qingming's present military might, even if a dog were tethered to that post, it could still win this war.
If Hule Gao'en ever dared harbor disloyal thoughts again, Wei Yuan would not show the slightest leniency. There were plenty of Mountain Folk, after all, and no shortage of Mountain Traitors. A dog's core competence lay in loyalty and obedience, not in how fiercely it could bite.
After all, Qingming had guns.
Chapter 1364