All in the Bag

To outsiders, Western Jin was already something in Wei Yuan's bag. All the King of Jin governed was merely three commanderies surrounding the imperial capital. Furthermore, the Xu family's territory had shrunk from ten commanderies down to four, which included the ancestral lands where Xu Wangu lived in seclusion. Yet in Wei Yuan's view, Western Jin was still far from being integrated into Qingming. Its dozens of commanderies held three billion people, all still subjects of Jin, and the local economy consisted merely of simple raw material exports and a few basic industries. Total output was exceedingly limited, with a per capita output less than one percent of Qingming's. This was originally Wei Yuan's reservoir for nurturing human luck, but given the pressing circumstances of the present, the pace of development indeed had to be accelerated. The customary method of harvesting human luck was ensuring people were well fed and warmly clothed. But after governing tens of thousands of li and holding sway over hundreds of millions of people for decades, Wei Yuan had developed a new insight. The quickest method to yield results was actually: identity. Identity had two major models: distinction and identification. Identification was the foundation, while distinction could immensely amplify its efficacy. For instance, the overseas literati subsidized by the Qingming Development Bureau had no official Qingming status, yet each regarded himself as a spiritual Qingming citizen. In daily life, they looked down on the people of the Nine Realms around them; receiving only a meager stipend, they strained with all their might to contribute karmic luck. As Qingming grew mightier by the day, the number of spiritual Qingming citizens proliferated. Over these years, the Development Bureau's budget had not increased by much, so the vast majority of these newly emerged spiritual Qingmingers received no stipend at all, forced to bring their own rations. Set against the backdrop of these self-funded spiritual Qingmingers, those who did receive stipends truly strutted with pride. Even the faint murmurs of the past demanding stipend increases completely vanished. Qingming's stipends now carried value far beyond mere money; they were a status symbol. Those holding a stipend had proof of endorsement by the Celestial Empire. When lecturing in various places, the honorariums and travel stipends they commanded were several tiers higher than those without, and invitations poured in ceaselessly, far more than they could ever accept. The unstipended served as entertainment for the stipended, while the stipended served as entertainment for full Qingming citizens. It was just like a village: if there were no poor people around, the landlord's pleasure would have nowhere to come from. Such was the immense boost distinction brought to identity. Wei Yuan first conducted a comprehensive screening and registration of the people within Qingming. Every individual was recorded on file with a unique identification code. This alone was something the Nine Realms could never achieve; only Qingming, underpinned by the Splendor of the Many Realms, was capable of pulling it off. Having first clarified the identification and corresponding rights of Qingming citizens, Wei Yuan immediately proclaimed the abolition of the prevailing practice whereby refugees automatically became Qingming citizens upon arriving in Qingming. As expected, this move caused a shockwave across Qingming, followed by nearly unanimous support, though a few discordant voices remained. There was currently a group of "great-hearted intellectuals" in Qingming who had consistently fought for the status and treatment of refugees. Wei Yuan's move naturally provoked their fiercest opposition. At present, the younger generation of Qingming was robust and strong, many standing nearly seven chi tall—and this was not the shorter chi of ancient standards. Most of this generation were natural seedlings for Body Casting, and in the future, at least half of them would become template cultivators. The remaining half who could not form a Dao foundation mostly focused on studies, universally completing intermediate academies, and more than half gaining admission to higher academies. Upon graduating, they became the core backbone needed across all trades. External refugees, on the other hand, were mostly like Qingming's earliest refugees—emaciated and withered, completely illiterate, and utterly devoid of propriety, righteousness, integrity, or shame. Upon entering Qingming, they immediately felt as though they had stepped into paradise. Everything they laid eyes on was wonderful, and they wanted it for themselves. Many could not resist resorting to petty theft; in their minds, whatever ended up in their hands was theirs, and whatever consequences might follow discovery were a matter for later. A few individuals nearly committed heinous crimes, and the only reason they failed was that the Great Array of the Heavenly Starlight monitored all things, apprehending them before they could even strike. The new refugees naturally wanted jobs, yet respectable jobs in Qingming either required a Dao foundation or a higher academy degree; at bare minimum, one had to finish an intermediate academy, or else one could not even read an equipment operation manual. Thus, all decent jobs were out of reach for refugees, which left both the refugees and many of Qingming's own intellectuals deeply dissatisfied. Setting aside the fact that the refugees knew how to do nothing, they insisted that refugees in Qingming ought to enjoy equal treatment with Qingming citizens, equal pay for equal work, and that every job, regardless of rigid requirements, should have a portion allocated to refugees. Wei Yuan could not fathom where these fellows' overflowing compassion came from, so he dispatched specialists to investigate the matter. The final conclusion was: these people possessed great love in their hearts, provided it cost them no money. Wei Yuan therefore established a batch of training institutes dedicated to providing vocational skill training for refugees. Any skill under the sun could be taught in these institutes, completely free of restriction or discrimination. There was only one catch: all operational funds for the institutes relied on private donations; Qingming would not contribute a single copper. Without sufficient donations, the institutes would not open. And whenever those far-sighted, caring souls popped up to say something, fundraisers would arrive at their door immediately. The effect of this measure was extraordinarily obvious. Over a full six months, only two training institutes ever managed to open. Those countless benevolent intellectuals who claimed to represent more than half of Qingming seemed to have vanished into thin air. Naturally, there were always those who refused to donate a cent yet insisted on speaking out and railing against Wei Yuan. Toward such people, Wei Yuan showed no indulgence whatsoever, seeing them courteously to the border and revoking their Qingming citizenship. Only then did people realize anew how foolish it was to oppose Wei Yuan. The Old Fiend's methods were ruthless, with no bottom line, yet his conduct was strictly grounded in law and supported by verifiable statutes—it was just that the law had large print and fine print, and there was rather a lot of fine print. If there truly was no corresponding statute, he would simply establish another one. As for armed resistance, that was out of the question. Wei Yuan was now the foremost figure in Qingming; swatting all dissidents to death would take him a single palm strike. Besides, outside Qingming, where had anyone ever heard of Scenery Command masters reasoning with lower cultivators? Such notions existed only in popular novels, and those novels were all written by lower cultivators anyway. That group of benevolent intellectuals was actually quite fortunate: when leaving Qingming, they were permitted to take their personal property with them and convert all their merit points into physical goods before departing. Some among them retained their original convictions even after leaving Qingming, only to hit wall after wall. Only then did they realize that without Qingming's backing, in barren lands where people could not even fill their bellies, how could there be any room for "great love"? True great love was first feeding people until they were full, ensuring that no one starved or froze to death. Wei Yuan's refusal to grant Qingming citizenship to refugees received full support from the lower strata of Qingming. Although these people had also been refugees years earlier, or their preceding generations had been refugees, they now had no desire to see new refugees automatically enjoy Qingming's benefits. Primary academies, for instance, felt the impact of refugees most keenly. When Xu Youyi sent in those fifty million people, all of them had to spend a year in primary academies. Consequently, many children from Qingming's lower classes no longer had spacious desks upon enrollment; lecture halls held twice as many students as before, and the cafeterias were packed to bursting. Furthermore, many of the refugees were adults, whereas Qingming's pupils were mostly children. If a conflict arose, the refugees would habitually throw a slap—if they didn't swing a hand, they couldn't win a shouting match against the Qingming children. Of course, when it came to a fight, they might not necessarily win either. Among the refugees were also many bizarre cults and religions attempting to place their religious laws above Qingming's statutes. Unfortunately, Wei Yuan was not a man of bottomless tolerance—in fact, "tolerance" could hardly be applied to him at all. The few Dao foundation patriarchs of those religions flapped their wings a few times, only to bow their heads before harsh reality. Those who refused to bow had become eternal memories in the minds of their clansmen. Furthermore, Qingming possessed an orthodox religion: the Three Realms Daoist Court. Its might, divine abilities, and blessings were utterly beyond what those patriarchs could conceive. Yet Wei Yuan still preserved an ample avenue for upward mobility: before merit points, all were equal. With enough merit, one could exchange for housing, education, cultivation, Dao paths, and even spouses—anything at all. This mechanism ensured that templates like Wen Guantian could walk with their heads high even before Scenery Command cultivators. All in all, Wei Yuan spent half a year establishing the Qingming citizenship system and cleaning up the mess left by the old refugees. Only then were his hands freed to address the Western Jin issue. First, all citizens of Western Jin could apply for Qingming residency status. Those who met the requirements could enter Qingming to live and work for a period of five years. After completing five years, if they satisfied certain conditions, they could transition to full Qingming citizens. Nor was this five-year residency qualification something just anyone could obtain. The initial quota was set at five million, which immediately sent Western Jin into an uproar of excitement. Five million slots meant five million households. In all likelihood, every single one of them would contribute karmic luck. Then would come the second batch, the third batch... Harvesting in this manner was precise and efficient, gathering all the elite essence of Western Jin completely into Wei Yuan's bag.