Chapter 1218 – Trusting and Keeping in Check

11th month, 12th day, Zhan Lang along with the Donghai Province submitted to Great Xia.

When the news spread out, people were not really all that surprised.

After the calamity in the 10th month, the Great Zhou Dynasty that was already on a downward slope was totally withering and showed no signs of rising up. Zhan Lang breaking away from Great Zhou and joining Great Xia was simply normal.

Even the players did not blame him.

On the contrary, when Azure Badge received the news, they jumped out to expose his identity while scolding him for abandoning the organization.

When Di Chen heard that, he was astonished.

Along with Donghai Province joining Great Xia, Great Zhou Dynasty went from six provinces at its peak to two.

Everyone knew that Great Zhou was already close to being wiped out.

The so-called four country alliance was just barely breathing after the calamity.

Azure Badge jumping out at this moment was just due to anger. They wanted to sully Zhan Lang’s reputation. However, the direction of the global comments greatly exceeded their expectations.

“Planting spies all over, Azure Badge is so dirty, yet they still dare to scold others?”

“Wanting to sully others? Wipe your ass first!”

“Why did Zhan Lang enter such a cold-blooded organization?”

Such comments filled up the various medias and caught Azure Badge off guard. Amongst these comments, there were the players empathizing with the weak and commoners being unhappy with Azure Badge.

More importantly, Silver Hand was pushing the waves.

To have a deeply hidden spy planted among them for no reason had simply made them lose all face. Number 2 was furious and grumbled that he wanted to seek revenge on Azure Badge.

Hence, Silver Hand took the chance to throw dirty water at Azure Badge.

Along with the global situation settling down, Great Xia’s overseas peaceful period meant that the honeymoon between the two organizations was coming to an end. Them butting heads was just a matter of time.

The Zhan Lang matter was just the spark.
…
Great Xia’s efficiency was magically quick.

11th month, 14th day, the Imperial Court sent out appointments to remove West Gate Big Official from his role as Xiangnan Provincial Governor, moving him to Donghai Province. Original Ming Chancellor Li Shanchang would take over.

As one who was credited with helping to start the Ming Dynasty, Li Shanchang loved to read when he was young and joined Zhu Yuanzhang. At the time, he followed the latter to battle through life and death. He accumulated a lot of credit and was comparable to Han Chancellor Xiao He.

Taking the role of Xiangnan Provincial Governor was no challenge at all to him.

Apart from Li Shanchang, Ming Dynasty officials like Yang Shen and Song Lian were all put in important positions. Only the prestigious Li Jiliu was treated coldly and did not obtain a position.

Toward this, Ouyang Shuo did not make any explanation.

West Gate Big Official moving from Xiangnan Province to the richer Donghai Province showed that he had obtained Ouyang Shuo’s recognition. He had officially stepped into that circle, and his future was bright.

Gaia let the Lords compete in the wilderness, and there would only be a few winners in the end. They could just count the Lords who lost mid-way as failures.

They were half successful and still needed a stage to perform.

Ouyang Shuo knew that they would needed historical talents like Zheng Guofan but also talents like Bai Hua and West Gate Big Official on Planet Hope in the future.

He could not relax his development of them.

Training up them would be like training a new layer of people that would help protect his rule. Great Xia would not be an empty city lacking people.

Apart from that, the Imperial Court gave Zhu Yuanzhang’s grandson Zhu Yunwen the title of Small Ming King to settle the Ming royal family.

First, Ouyang Shuo did that to calm down the hearts of the Ming Dynasty officials. Secondly, he was taking the heat from Zhan Lang. Zhan Lang had taken down Great Ming, which resulted in them not getting titles. With Donghai joining Great Xia, Great Xia should naturally come out to settle the matter.

The reason was the same as why they gave the title of Han King to Liu Fuling.

Along with Donghai Province submitting, Great Xia was all prepared to upgrade to Emperor dynasty.

Gaia was tactful and did not set any country upgrading quests. As long as one achieved the basic requirements, one could upgrade at any time. That was because any quest would be really extra and would just be a waste of time to an Emperor dynasty.

Apart from organizing Donghai Province, they needed to reorganize the Blood Red legion corps.

After taking down Great Ming, although they took down the Ming troops, the Blood Red legion corps themselves suffered casualties. In the end, 250 thousand soldiers were left. Although they did not reach a full legion corps, they had roughly recovered their strength.

Now, they had to form two legions from the 250 thousand people, removing 110 thousand people from duty.

These soldiers were people that fought many wars with Zhan Lang, and he could not go down on them. Ouyang Shuo could only let the Privy Court take charge of the issue.

The Imperial Court decreed Zhan Lang as the Ecuador and Lieutenant General of the South America formation and gave him Grade 3 Zhenglu general. The original Blood Red legion corps marshal Xie Xuan would become the 1st legion Legion General.

The original 1st legion Legion General of the Yingzhou formation Guo Liang was appointed as 2nd legion Legion General.

Guo Liang was someone Ouyang Shuo trusted. Putting him there was a restraint on Zhan Lang and also to protect Zhan Lang.

Without the power of supervision, one could easily be corrupted.

Furthermore, Ouyang Shuo had treated Zhan Lang far too kindly already. Anymore and the other officials might grow unhappy. They would not dare to be unhappy about Ouyang Shuo, so they would direct their feelings toward Zhan Lang.

If that happened, it might not be a good thing for Zhan Lang.

In Ecuador Prefecture, with Zhou Haichen and Guo Liang, Zhan Lang would not be able to go on the wrong path. Taking a step back, Zhan Lang’s family was still in Great Xia, so there was no chance.

Ouyang Shuo had already crafted the defense and prevention system to perfection.

Original Blood Red legion corps 1st legion Legion General Zhao Zhuang would replace Guo Liang in the Yingzhou formation.

Apart from that, Ming Dynasty general Tang He, Li Wenzhong, and Lan Yu were all given good appointments, and their talents would not be wasted.

Lan Hu was the 5th legion Legion General of the Phoenix legion corps, and Li Wenzhong became a Legion General in the Xiangjiang legion corps.

These two could be considered the representative figures of the unruly soldiers and commanders. They were really unrestrained after the Ming Dynasty was established. Historically, they were killed by Zhu Yuanzhang, and they deserved it to a certain extent.

Ouyang Shuo did not mind giving them such important appointments.

Great Xia was not Great Ming, and Lan Yu did not have the merit of helping to start the dynasty. Hence, he could not be arrogant.

In terms of purely warfighting, Lan Yu was really good.

The most special one was Tang He, someone as famous as Xu Da, who became the deputy Legion General of the 5th legion of the Imperial Palace Guards.

To become a deputy Legion General while Xu Da led the Imperial Palace Guards seemed like a waste of his talent. However, in truth, Ouyang Shuo trusted him the most.

People could see that moving him to the 5th legion corps was to teach and assist Lin Jing. The day he succeeds would be the day when he would be moved to an important position.

Ouyang Shuo believed that he would definitely understand that theory.

In history, all the Ming Dynasty starting officials died a bad end. For only Tang He to have a good death was not without reason.

At this point, this round of appointments came to an end.
…
11th month, 15th day, Mongol Empire, Karakoram.

The sudden locust calamity caused the originally prosperous empire to enter a problematic state. Anyone could imagine the tragic scenes of cows and sheep dying during the winter because of the lack of food.

Without cows and sheep, there would be no food; without food, they could not feed themselves. Without the young men, there would be no Mongol cavalry; without the Mongol cavalry, how would the empire survive?

This was such a simple logic.

The higher ups of the Empire had agreed to pillage. The only thing they had to confirm was which direction to head towards.

Imperial Palace, main hall.

Genghis Khan had gathered all the generals to discuss this matter.

The first to step up was general Muqali, who cupped his fist, “Genghis, the mid plains region is fertile, and their grain stacks up like mountains; it’s the best place to attack.”

Muqali was sent by his father to Genghis Khan to be a slave. With his intellect and courage in battle, he was highly regarded by Genghis Khan.

In his 40 years of following Genghis Khan, he followed all instructions, helping Genghis Khan unify the Mongol tribe. He was named as one of the four heroes.

“Although it is fertile, it was also hit by the disaster and might not have much grain. More importantly, the mid plains has Qin, Xia and Zhou, these three countries, with no less than a million troops, so it is not the best choice to attack.” The one who retorted was Tolei.

Hearing that, Genghis Khan nodded and agreed with his analysis.

The current mid plains were different from any part of history. Although many countries were fighting over it, the amount of troops were shocking and could not be provoked.

If they were careless, they could drag the entire empire into the abyss.

Hence, Genghis Khan would rather attack the Turkish Khanate than Liaojin Province.

Muqali smiled, “If the mid plains do not work, we can only attack West Xia. West Xia was unaffected because of us and should give us some thanks.”

This time, Genghis Khan did not object, “Well said. Let’s attack West Xia.”

Just at this moment, Tolei stepped out once more, “Father, I have an idea.”

“Speak!”

Genghis Khan really favored Tolei and had high hopes for him.

Tolei cupped his fist, “I recommend first being polite and then sending troops. We send an ambassador to ask them to hand over grain, if they do not agree, we attack.”

Genghis Khan’s eyes narrowed, and he asked solemnly, “What are you worried about?”

“I’m worried that if we engage, it will push West Xia to Great Xia. Even if West Xia does not join them, we will lose troops in the war and Great Xia would benefit from it.”

Muqali was unhappy before Genghis Khan even replied, “Who cares about Great Xia? Others are afraid of them, but we are not. At most, let’s have a fight. Who knows who will win?”

In the eyes of the Mongol generals, the empire was always the strongest.