Chapter 159: Internal Growth
Chapter 159: Internal Growth
"Too deceiving!"
The solid wooden table was smashed to pieces, and the flying wood chips splashed like hidden weapons. In the small room, Meng Zhan's face was ashen:
"How dare you, an old man, bully me like this?!"
Amidst the flying wood chips, Meng Zhan was furious, his clothes fluttered in the wind, making a rustling sound.
All the Zhenwu Hall masters inside and outside the hut lowered their heads and kept silent.
"Hall Master."
At this time, a young man in green armor strode in from outside the yard, glanced at the rest of the people outside the house, and waved his hand to let them go down.
"Minglu."
Seeing the newcomer, Meng Zhan's expression finally eased: "What's going on?"
Wang Minglu walked quickly into the room, closed the door, and answered in a low voice:
"The six altars in the government office, Wang's residence, Louyi Lane, Baicao Pavilion, etc. were all destroyed, and the useless people of the Evil God Cult were killed or injured..."
"waste!"
Meng Zhan's face twitched, and he could barely suppress his anger: "Su Wanxiong's subordinates are all trash!"
Wang Minglu's heart trembled, and he said in a deep voice: "Master, you have been getting more and more angry these days."
"I am practicing the righteous method of worshipping the gods bestowed by the main hall. I will not easily lose control and go crazy. But today I really can't suppress the anger in my heart."
Meng Zhan waved his hand, not thinking anything was wrong, but his eyes were cold:
"I am the only one who knows the locations of the six altars. Before today, even you didn't know all their locations. How could that old man know?"
"This……"
Wang Minglu shook his head: "This is also what I am confused about..."
"This matter must be thoroughly investigated!"
Meng Zhan's face turned pale and he felt uneasy.
He thought he had acted extremely cautiously. The six altars were unaware of each other's existence. Who had the ability to find them all?
"Yes."
Wang Minglu nodded, but he couldn't help but feel a little worried: "If this matter is exposed, what should we do?"
"The Divine Weapon Valley condoned the Evil God Cult's blood sacrifice. What does it have to do with us? This hall master is at most derelict in his duty."
Meng Zhan sneered: "If not, that old man would not have warned me today, but would have taken action directly!"
"warn?"
"That old man wants to force me to leave."
Meng Zhan regained his composure: "Minglu, send a pigeon to the state hall and the state government office. After that, we will temporarily leave Zhelong Mansion!"
"Leaving the city?"
Wang Minglu was a little unwilling, but he could only nod and leave.
"Divine Weapon Valley!"
Inside the room, Meng Zhan had a blank expression on his face, but his chest kept rising and falling, and he could hardly suppress the anger in his heart.
The duty of Zhenwu Hall is to supervise the local area, but he is actually being forced out of the city. This is simply a great shame and humiliation!
"One day, one day..."
After taking a few deep breaths, he still couldn't suppress the anger in his heart. Meng Zhan pushed open the door and wanted to vent his anger.
……
……
"More than 1,400 years ago, Taizu divided the world into fiefs, and all the clans that made contributions were rewarded. But after Taizu passed away, the court was always thinking about suppressing all the clans, sweeping the world, and taking back the right to tax."
On the carriage back to Shenbing Valley, Jing Shuhu spoke more frequently, and talked to Li Yuan about the court and the current situation.
The imperial court relied on the sects to rule the world and collect taxes, but at the same time it was extremely dissatisfied with the sects' deductions and collections, and had been fighting openly and secretly for hundreds of years.
Violent organizations such as Zhenwu Hall and Jingping Division also originated from this.
"To reduce the power of the feudal lords."
Li Yuan nodded to show that he understood. Pang Wenlong had the ambition to divide the world into fiefdoms, but his descendants might not have the same ambition.
Two brothers in the same family may become enemies because of family property, let alone the world?
It is natural to fight openly and secretly.
Even more, thinking in an expanded way, were those emperors assassinated by the Zhaixing Tower really assassinated by the Zhaixing Tower?
Judging from his own experience, Li Yuan felt that if he were in the position of those big sects, if he was forced into a corner, he would probably just hide his face and fight to the death.
"Yeah, almost. Our sect is not much different from the princes of the previous dynasty, except that we don't have the same surname as the emperor."
Jing Shuhu sat cross-legged, breathing almost nonexistently, a sign that the breathing method had long been integrated into his instincts:
"In each province, prefecture and county, the sects may fight each other, but once the imperial court intervenes, they will surely join forces to attack!"
A great alliance of sects.
Li Yuan understood very well that compared with the imperial court, a single sect would naturally appear weak, and joining forces to fight against it was inevitable.
At this time, the benefits of reading more books were reflected. Once Jing Shuhu explained it, Li Yuan could understand it quickly.
Dayun established the country through military force and ruled the world with sects. Each road, state, and prefecture was self-governing by the sects, and they had the right to levy taxes and train soldiers.
As far as he knew, the Divine Weapon Valley could collect 20% to 30% of the taxes from Zhelong Prefecture, and the rest would be handed over to the state by the prefecture, and Huailong Palace would also collect 20%.
Afterwards, they were handed over to Daocheng, Daocheng, and Longhu Temple...
After so many withdrawals at various levels, only 20% to 30% of the funds actually fell into the hands of the imperial court.
This is what it means to share the world.
"The imperial court established the Zhenwu Hall in order to extract elite members from the sects to suppress them. When Taizu was alive, each family still gave him some face. Now..."
Jing Shuhu shook his head.
Li Yuan didn't say much, just listened, and he had a deeper understanding of the relationship between the sect and the court.
The imperial court wants to reduce the power of the vassal states, and the clans want to secede. It is so simple and obvious.
"Okay, let's get off topic."
Jing Shuhu sighed a few words and did not mention the matter again. At this time, the carriage also arrived at the foot of Shenbing Mountain.
"By the way, I heard from Lao Lei that you want to go to the secret library or the Divine Weapon Pavilion?"
Before getting off the car, Jing Shuhu suddenly spoke.
"what?"
Li Yuan nodded: "Disciple wants to observe the weapons left by the ancestors of past generations and understand their ideas on weapon forging..."
"No."
Jing Shuhu refused outright. Seeing that the latter was a little disappointed, he felt a little satisfied and said:
"However, for Lao Lei's sake, I can promise you..."
Li Yuan raised his head, somewhat expecting this. Jing Shuhu put his hands behind his back:
"Every time you use a top-grade weapon, I will go to the Divine Weapon Pavilion to get another top-grade weapon for you to observe. At the same time, I will go to the Secret Building and choose a martial art that you want!"
Jing Shuhu was not surprised by Li Yuan's request.
He was naturally well aware of the disciples of the Hammer Weapon Hall's pursuit of changing their bones and changing their forms. What satisfied him was that this kid did not forget the art of forging weapons while practicing martial arts.
"Thank you, Great Elder!"
Li Yuan was delighted and quickly bowed to express his gratitude.
"Ah."
Jing Shuhu nodded and was about to leave.
"The inner armor that the disciple made before..."
"Ok?"
Jing Shuhu frowned and walked away:
"Let's just forget about it!"
"Thank you, Great Elder!"
Hearing the obvious heartfelt gratitude behind him, Jing Shuhu's mouth curled up slightly, and he disappeared on the mountain path in a few ups and downs.
Seems to be in a good mood.
……
Southeast of Shenbing Mountain, outside the sunny forest, is the temporary garrison and recruiting place built by the Shenwei Army.
On the open space compacted by yellow mud, tents stretched for miles, hundreds of soldiers were performing martial arts exercises, and the strong bloody energy seemed to melt the snow.
"The Yizi Battalion has expanded three times and now has 8,000 people. The lowest among them are warriors who have cultivated internal strength, and there are also many warriors who have tempered their bodies and strengthened their internal strength."
Outside the open space, Li Yuan looked out from afar and saw thousands of warriors lined up to perform martial arts, which was quite spectacular. Yu Jin was talking beside them.
This veteran soldier of the Divine Guard was very familiar with military formations. On the way, he told Li Yuan many rules of the barracks and things that needed attention.
"If we expand further, it will be 10,000 people."
Li Yuan was quite moved.
A team of warriors who have developed internal strength lined up. Hundreds of ordinary people would be defeated by one blow and would be no match for them.
Eight thousand people are enough to capture the city.
"I heard that Duanmu Sheng wants to expand to 30,000 people."
Yu Jin was also very familiar with the news about the Divine Guard. Although he had retired, he still had disciples and followers in the Divine Guard.
“Isn’t 30,000 a bit too much?”
Li Yuan frowned slightly.
There are only a thousand people in the Zi Camp. Even if they are all elite, it is inevitable that it will be bloated if there are thirty of them, and the combat effectiveness may not be improved much.
The army needs to be trained, not just to develop internal strength.
"Hard to say."
Yu Jin said nothing.
Several people walked towards the military camp. Li Yuan had the badge of the commander of the Divine Guard Army, so he had no obstruction and quickly found the officer in charge of the personnel dispatch of the barracks.
Naturally, there is no need to look for a commander like Duanmu Sheng to decide the stay or departure of a few menial disciples.
"Brother Li?"
The officer obviously recognized Li Yuan. He was flattered to see him coming to see him and hurriedly brought a chair over.
When she heard that he was going to transfer a few disciples, she hurriedly brought over the roster and quickly accomplished the task that Liu Zheng and Wang Peiyao had been unable to accomplish even with all the money they had.
"Thank you, Junior Brother Li."
Li Yuan nodded and left, taking the heavy armor that he had not come to pick up before.
Heavy armor and crossbows were the only things he couldn't get his hands on easily.
"Brother Li, take care!"
The officer escorted him all the way to the gate of the military camp, waving loudly, which attracted a lot of attention and his smile became even more pronounced.
But when he turned around, he was startled: "Sun, Elder Sun..."
"Humph!"
Sun Zan snorted coldly, then walked towards the big tent with a wave of his sleeves.
In the big tent, Duanmu Sheng sat in armor, flipping through files, with a huge marching sand table in front of him.
You can see a red line going through the mountains and forests, heading straight for the city.
"Great Commander!"
Sun Zan bowed in greeting.
"Ah."
Duanmu Sheng put down the file.
"After Wang Zhaozhi and Lin Jia were assassinated, Zhenwu Hall reacted strongly, but they should leave the city temporarily."
Sun Zan replied.
"The Sanyuanwu army is coming, and stability in the city is the most important thing. Meng Zhan is a wise man."
Duanmu Sheng was not surprised, the only thing that surprised him was:
"The Lin Jia Tongmai has already mastered it. Is there such a skilled person in Zhaixing Tower?"
"It is the Star Picking Tower after all."
Sun Zan was a little afraid. Some time ago, he had been the victim of an assassination attempt and had to hide in the Divine Weapon Pavilion for more than half a month.
"It's better for Meng Zhan to retreat, so that I don't have to take action."
Duanmu Sheng didn't dwell on this and continued to look through the files.
Sun Zan sat for a while and chatted with him for a few words. Before leaving, he pretended to mention casually:
"By the way, I ran into Li Yuan when I entered the camp just now. Was he here to pay his respects to the commander-in-chief?"
"Li Yuan?"
Looking at Sun Zan's departing back, Duanmu Sheng frowned slightly. He put down the file and took out a piece of letter from his arms.
He tapped the table lightly, glanced at the last sentence on the letter, suddenly laughed, raised his hand and shook the letter into powder:
"Which is more important? It is important for people to know themselves!"
(End of this chapter)