Chapter 651-Hanwu Emperor vs. West Chu Overlord
Translator: ryangohsf
Editor: Nora
Ouyang Shuo's letter to Shanhai City caused some massive waves.
Just by reading the letter, Xiao He and the other officials felt rather emotional. Without a doubt, after leading the troops to crush Singapore, the voyage squadron had once again taken a key victory and obtained great rewards.
"When did our territory’s influence start to radiate to the entire world?"
No one could give a correct answer to this question, but they could all feel that Shanhai City was slowly moving towards a state where they had a powerful influence on the world.
Before the voyage squadron had set out to sea, Xiao He and the others had viewed the world as just a small land with China as its core. But the moment the reports from the voyage squadron arrived, they were astonished that the world was truly so huge.
Their ambition once again burned.
"We can't be burdens any longer." Xiao He was filled with emotion.
Sitting opposite to Xiao He was Official Ruling Department Director Zhang Tingyu. For Xiao He to be able to talk to him so comfortably meant that this director had already completely merged into the Nanjiang Governor-General House circle.
After spending numerous months together, Xiao He genuinely respected Zhang Tingyu. This fellow who did not say much did not only have a vast ruling experience, he also possessed unique foresight. In regards to tough situations, he would often hit the spot with one statement.
What was rare was that Zhang Tingyu was a humble person and would not compete with others to see who was better. When he did not agree with your view, he would not step out to retort; instead, he would just smile.
It was this smile that often gave others a heavy pressure. Many times, he did not even need to retort and people would just give up.
‘Director Zhang's smile’ had become one of the major killing weapons of the Governor-General House.
After all, he had worked in the special age of the Qing Dynasty, where the imperial courts were a battle for power between officials. Zhang Tingyu was extremely calm when he took care of matters, and he was able to give in to the interests of many parties.
This point was one that Xiao He praised.
In contrast to Zhang Tingyu, Xiao He in history was a prime minister.
During the starting periods of Han, he was the most powerful official, and the power he held made the prime ministers after him all feel envious.
This also gave rise to a weakness; he liked to make decisions by himself. If it was the Han Dynasty, this would not be a problem, as no one then could compete with him.
However, now they were in Shanhai City. Not to mention how many talents they had, their own Lord was intelligent and possessed amazing foresight. He would not allow a minister to take matters completely into his own hands.
All the officials in the territory, especially the other three directors, which one was not a famous minister? The lineup of the Nanjiang Governor-General House was far brighter and star studded than that of the Han Dynasty.
Furthermore, the ministers in Shanhai City had basically all started on the same running line. No one had extra contributions, and all had merits of starting the country. So how could his reputation and prestige here compare to his during Han Dynasty?
It was unavoidable that Xiao He would have conflicts with Fan Li, Wei Yang, and the others because of mixed opinions. Especially when the lord was not in Shanhai City, these matters were more common.
At this moment, Zhang Tingyu was the best lubricant to solve the problems between the four bureaus.
The cooperation between the two of them were exceedingly close.
……
After hearing his thoughts, Zhang Tingyu smiled, not replying. He took out a name list of officials and started to discuss with Xiao He about the officials that should go to Friendship City.
Since the Lord had instructed them, they naturally needed to treat the matter seriously.
The overall process of choosing officials to send started with the Ruling Official Department setting up a rough plan. Then the Four Bureaus would recommend some and the Ruling Official Department would make the selections.
The officials from County Office down were directly chosen by Xiao He. County Office and above needed Xiao He and the other three directors to discuss.
One could see that in terms of usage of officials, Xiao He and Zhang Tingyu had the most speaking rights. In normal circumstances, even Ouyang Shuo would respect the decisions of the Official Ruling Department. He would not interfere because he wanted to protect the prestige of the department.
Apart from the administration bureau, the three intel organizations, including the Honglu Temple, all had similar conversations.
The day they received the secret letter, Shanhai City swiftly moved to take action. In less than three days, the officials were completely moved, and the second voyage squadron set off.
Along with them were 200 merchant ships.
Without a doubt, they would be the first batch of rich people in the China region voyage trading. If everything went well, they would create legends of becoming rich overnight.
In the period of time that Ouyang Shuo went out to sea, the China region did not remain peaceful.
After the snow melted, Chun Shenjun, Wandering Magic, and Di Chen tried to expand to the Zhongyuan Province to take over the remaining land of the Zhangchu Regime.
They even wanted to attack Chen County to totally destroy the uprising army.
But at this moment, things changed.
Chensheng, who haf struggled for an entire winter, suddenly died. Xiang Yan, who was housed in Chen County, took control and combined it under the West Chu Regime rule.
West Chu, which had gone underground for half a year, finally bared its fangs.
The death of Chensheng, the decisiveness of Xiang Yan, everything was unusual.
At the same time, Xiang Yu personally led the troops north to destroy the Ludong City-State and take over Ludong Province to build an infallible base for West Chu.
With that, the Zhongyuan region once again ended up in smoke.
The most chaotic area was still Zhongyuan Province. After the addition of West Chu, Di Chen and the others were worried about what Xiang Yu thought about the other territories in the province.
At this very moment, the Hanwu Emperor suddenly acted.
He suddenly announced the prefecture around Luoyang City would belong to the imperial city and no player Lord was allowed to touch it. At the same time, Hanwu Emperor was unhappy with Xiang Yan taking over Chen County.
The battle between Chu and Han once again played out in the wilderness.
The Zhongyuan Province had become a battle between the two giants.
This made Di Chen and the others terrified; they did not know whether they should proceed forward or retreat. Feng Qiuhuang, on the other hand, was exceptionally decisive and just decided to back off.
Her strategic goal was to try to take over Taiyuan Province by the 3rd year of Gaia.
In truth, it was not Feng Qiuhuang alone that had such ambitions.
Di Chen and the others were all striking out, trying to expand their territory by attacking others. The smokes from war rose up again, and the peaceful situation had once again been broken.
The others were still okay, but the weirdest was the Guanxi Province.
That was because this province had both Sha Pojun and Wandering Magic. As they say, a mountain could not allow for two tigers, and their battle would reach a climax in the 3rd year of Gaia.
The end result would definitely be one of them getting eliminated.
……
Apart from the middle and northern regions, the south was similarly chaotic.
After the Huangchao Uprising Army was destroyed by both Zhan Lang and Xiong Ba, Wannan Province had once again found itself in a state of chaos. Even with Zhan Lang and Xiong Ba, there were aristocratic families that were rising.
That's right, aristocratic families. Aristocratic families continued to appear in the wilderness and started to participate in the wilderness fights. Wannan Province, which was in an unclaimed state, was naturally the best choice.
All in all, it was a total mess.
Of course, the most eye catching one was the battle for Yizhou Island.
After Shanhai City took down Singapore, the Lords near the oceans realized the strategic use of navies. With that, Yazhou island, which was located alone in the ocean, entered their field of vision.
Such an important strategic location actually remained desolate.
The lords immediately realized this point, and their eyes blazed with fire. Amongst them, the strongest were Xiong Ba and Xunlong Dianxue.
One was in Jiangnan Provincec, the other in the Minnan Province.
Since there was a competition, war was unavoidable.
After all, they were not pacifists and would not just give up this piece of land.
Just a month ago, King City and Xunlong City had a naval battle. In the end, relying on the support of Shanhai City, Xunlong City won by a slight margin.
Just as everyone thought that the dust had finally settled, the skies changed.
After Xiong Ba lost, he did not give up, leading a navy and slowly changing course, disembarking on the east of Yizhiu island. Moroever, Xunlong Dianxue chose to disembark on the west shore that was closer to him.
With that, the two armies changed from naval warfare to army warfare. Till now, the situation was still in a stalemate.
For this battle, as they had not received any instructions from Ouyang Shuo, Shanhai City chose to remain silent.
The China Region, where the flames of war broke out all around. At this time, Shanhai City was unusually peaceful. The three legion corps were quietly training their troops. The only activity was the military martial arts competition.
The current goal of Shanhai City was to develop and build up.
Millions of funds were invested into pushing forth the territory construction of basic facilities with lightning speed. Basic education and basic medical care were slowly progressing under Su Zhe's organization.
The territory trade continued to make new records.
Shanhai City was resting up, training up internally, and forming a strong base and foundation; all of this was in order to create enough energy for the next outburst.
One had to say, Shanhai City was truly an independent party, a unique existence in China.
Of course, all of this did not take into account the voyage squadron.
The voyage squadron that set out a few months ago had caused huge news after news, reminding Di Chen and the others that their opponent was not truly silent.
If Ouyang Shuo knew that even when he went out on a voyage, he would affect the plans of the people within the country, who knows what he would think?