Chapter 844 Getting rich in silence
Chapter 844 Getting rich in silence
In fact, Wen Rui was reporting false accounts again to defraud funds. The first coalition expedition to the Blood Sea was indeed a great defeat, but the loss of military supplies was not that great.
During that military expedition, Wen Rui served as the military commander in charge of logistics, which was a perfect opportunity for him to take advantage of his position to engage in massive corruption.
But despite his greed, he actually played a positive role in the progress of the war. Equipping the soldiers with strong interaction force armor greatly reduced the consumption of healing pills for the injured. The extremely high immortal power conversion rate of the Ruyi Immortal Soldiers greatly reduced the consumption of elixirs to replenish immortal power.
These remaining elixirs and fairy jades have been kept in Wen Rui's personal treasury.
After returning in defeat, several allied commanders were struck by a cognitive distortion and could no longer communicate normally with others. Therefore, only Wen Rui himself knew how much balance was left in his small treasury.
Therefore, after this amount of military supplies was reported as war losses, it all ended up in Wen Rui's personal pocket.
Wen Rui did not participate in the second expedition and did not gain any benefits.
When the troops were dispatched for the third time, the heavenly soldiers and generals were doing scraping on the side, and a lot of immortal jades were consumed. However, as there were not many casualties, a large amount of healing immortal pills were saved, which were all taken by Wen Rui for his own use and pocketed by him.
Among the soldiers who took part in the third expedition, there were some knowledgeable men who saw that Wen Rui was secretly embezzling military funds. However, Wen Rui shared a large amount of his military merits with them, and everyone was rewarded, so there would be no short-sighted soldiers who would come forward to report him.
Several battles emptied the treasury of the Heavenly Palace, but greatly enriched Wen Rui.
If it is an era of peace in the world, the sentient beings in the mortal world will provide a stable supply of incense and vows, and the Heavenly Court will reap the blessings and receive rewards from the Heavenly Dao. There will be no shortage of resources for refining immortal pills and large amounts of immortal jade.
Unfortunately, the number of Taoist believers in the mortal world is now close to zero. All human traces in the vast southern continent have been wiped out, and the incense has completely stopped.
Faith and will cannot be directly converted into resources, but they can seriously affect the luck attribute.
In the past, if you simply sent some Yellow Turban warriors to the heavens to collect, you would be able to pick up a lot of spiritual herbs and find rich mineral veins.
Nowadays, even drinking cold water is a problem in Heaven. The Yellow Turban warriors who go out to collect resources encounter frequent problems. Not only do they return empty-handed, but they may also suffer losses. Their hard work ends up with more expenses than they gain.
Similarly, in the past, when the gods were doing nothing, the Heavenly Dao simply turned a blind eye and did not investigate further.
But now it is completely lying flat. Not to mention blessing all living beings, all living beings have disappeared, and there is no target or object to bless even if you want to.
Although there are objective reasons, they will also be judged by the Heavenly Dao as being in a position of idleness and unworthy of their position, and even the gods will start to feel their teeth get stuck even when drinking cold water.
In the past, when refining a pill, nine out of ten times were successful, and one or two were great successes, producing top-quality pills.
Now, nine out of ten attempts failed, and one or two of them were major failures. The alchemy furnace exploded directly, flattening a section of the palace and warehouse. Not only were the alchemy materials lost, but even the alchemist was half killed.
All the negative effects have formed a reverse cycle. The financial situation of the Heavenly Court has been getting worse and worse. Nearly ten years have passed since the last great victory. Not only has it not saved much military funds for the next round of troops, it has also suffered a lot of losses.
Now the Jade Emperor wanted to ask Wen Rui to send troops, and Wen Rui did not refuse, but he brought up this reason, leaving the Jade Emperor speechless and at a loss as to what to do.
The gods also have to face practical problems. Even a skilled cook cannot cook without rice. Wen Rui's words really stumped the Jade Emperor.
Anyone with a little common sense knows that the emperor will not suffer from hungry soldiers. Without sufficient supplies, no matter how many soldiers there are, they are just cannon fodder and filler.
Attacking ordinary mortal demon kings would be fine, as the melee abilities of the heavenly soldiers and generals are enough to crush them, without consuming much immortal jade and immortal pills. However, the combat effectiveness of the demon mosquito soldiers has been verified in many wars. Their individual combat abilities far exceed those of ordinary heavenly soldiers. Their bodies have the physical qualities of the peak of true immortals, and their self-healing abilities even exceed those of true immortals.
Forcing the army to go out will not only fail to achieve victory, but if the last few elite soldiers are used up, Heaven will not be able to defend the city even if it wants to.
The Jade Emperor is currently unable to raise the military supplies for an expedition. He is not a turtle in a wishing well, nor a genie in a lamp. Perhaps he can use some of his divine power to create countless mortal objects to satisfy the wishes of mortals.
But what the heavenly soldiers and generals need are treasures from the immortals. Even though the Jade Emperor can squander rice and flour to feed chickens and dogs, his power is limited. It is impossible for him to create treasures from heaven and earth out of thin air.
Even if there is a saint who has the ability to recreate the earth, fire, wind and water, he cannot produce immortal-grade treasures in large quantities out of thin air. Otherwise, he would not be the Jade Emperor, but Hongjun Daozu.
Even Tathagata Buddha, a powerful being ranked among the most powerful in the three realms, cannot create natural treasures out of thin air, let alone gold. Otherwise, the Western Church would not sell Buddhist scriptures in exchange for gold sand to decorate Buddha statues and earn a living for their descendants.
"Ugh……"
The Jade Emperor thought about it for a long time but could not come up with a solution. He looked around among the immortals with a pleading look, but all he saw were clay puppets with their heads down and silent.
In the current predicament, even coming up with an idea is difficult as climbing to the sky. It is true that a penny can not only stump a hero, but also stump all the gods and Buddhas.
Seeing the gods were speechless, Wen Rui shrugged his shoulders and said as a matter of course: "I am ready to fight at any time, just waiting for the military funds from the Heavenly Court to arrive. Your Majesty has gathered enough military supplies, just notify me, I will do my best to kill those ants and mosquitoes entrenched in the mortal world, and drive them all back to the bloody sea of hell."
"If there is sufficient funding, I will lead my troops to attack the Blood Sea, evaporate it and fill it up, and completely eliminate the troubles caused by the demonic calamity."
It's free to talk big, and Wen Rui spoke so passionately.
"Let's discuss the matter of sending troops to conquer the mortal world later..."
The Jade Emperor, however, looked gloomy. He waved his sleeves helplessly and said, "All the gods of each department, the next branch, must work harder. You don't need to worry about the mortal world. All of you should go to the heaven to collect spiritual herbs and jade and accumulate materials for military supplies."
"In addition, we must increase revenue and reduce expenditure. The salaries of all immortal officials will be reduced by half, and the supply of elixirs will be reduced by half. All revenue will be stored in the treasury for future use."
"All soldiers of the New Heaven Army must fight and practice martial arts diligently on a daily basis, be prepared for combat in the event of a lack of military supplies, and practice more to improve themselves in peacetime so that they will not be overly dependent on golden elixirs and fairy jades in wartime."
……
After all, the Jade Emperor has been a leader for countless tens of thousands of years and has reached a certain level of competence. The several decrees he issued are reasonable and feasible, and can be regarded as the best response strategy under the current situation.
However, this embarrassing situation is actually an illusion. The embezzled funds in Wen Rui's small treasury are enough to cover the expenses of fighting a few more major wars, but he will never say it out loud. He is concentrating on making money in silence.
The Jade Emperor listed a dozen or so strategies for the Heavenly Court to tighten its belt and prepare for war in extraordinary times. He then gestured to the fairy boy beside him with a tired look on his face. The fairy boy flicked his whip and said loudly, "This meeting of the Heavenly Branches and Earthly Branches ends here. If you have something to say, please report it. If not, please leave!"
"I have a memorial to submit!"
Suddenly, a crisp and slightly sharp female voice was heard from the fairy class. A fairy in a moon-white robe walked out of the fairy class and played loudly.
(End of this chapter)