Chapter 1320 – Chu Queen

After the New Year, the Great Xia Imperial Court issued an unassuming personnel change announcement.

Imperial decree, Secret Document Pavilion assistant Ouyang Bing is promoted to advisor. She will be in charge of the coordination and contact between the Cabinet and the four courts.

Her role was very flexible.

Ouyang Shuo had given her a vast stage so that she could walk around the Cabinet and four courts. She would be able to learn and familiarize herself with their work to prepare to takeover in the future.

This entire process would last for two years.

Ouyang Shuo did not spare any effort in training and developing Bing’er, and she did not disappoint him.

This brother and sister duo had a tacit understanding and a good relationship.

…

1st month, 5th day, Imperial Capital.

Ouyang Shuo chaired the annual meeting.

In addition to the 24 officials that participated last year, there were two new people. They were newly appointed Pacific Squadron Fleet Admiral Zhou Yu and Xijiang Governor-General Feng Qiuhuang.

New Secret Document Pavilion advisor Ouyang Bing sat in the corner of the hall to record the proceedings.

Although that was the case, the 26 officials could not help but glance at the corner and look at this calm and reserved young lady. They were filled with thoughts.

The officials had some rough guesses regarding the emperor’s arrangements.

Yesterday, the Imperial Court published the rank change list of the New Year. Di Chen became a 3rd class Marquis, attracting a lot of discussion. However, the true focus was on queen Ouyang Bing.

She was given the title of Chu Queen, becoming the first in Great Xia to become a hereditary king or queen.

Before this, Great Xia had six kings, Qin King Fu Su, Han King Liu Fuling, Sui King Yang Jian, Tang King Li Zhi, Song King Zhao Guangyi, and Ming King Zhu Yunwen.

Everyone knew that these six did not hold any power.

However, she was different. Being the only direct sister of his majesty, not only was she given the title of queen, but she was even given one out of the four most noble titles of Jin, Qin, Qi, and Chu. Hence, the meaning was naturally different.

A few days ago, she was promoted to advisor to take charge of the coordination and contact between the Cabinet and the four courts. In truth, this appointment surprised and confused the ministers.

After all, advisors were only primary grade 4, so how could a role like that have such responsibility? As for her identity, it did not have any weight on the Imperial Court. In fact, it even brought about a negative impact instead.

Only yesterday did the officials realize what was happening.

With her authority as the Chu Queen and the role of advisor, all problems were solved.

Some officials understood this arrangement of his majesty while others did not. For example, Jiang Shang and Zhang Liang knew that his majesty was preparing for Planet Hope.

Meanwhile, those who did not understand would not object in public.

In truth, his majesty allowing her go to Qiongzhou to learn politics was already a sign of the things to come.

After she worked in Qiongzhou for two years and the Secret Document Pavilion for a year, the officials slowly accept the fact that she was going to enter the Imperial Court. As she was going in step by step, there were naturally less people who objected to it.

Before the meeting began, the Cabinet and the Grand Council made a simple conclusion of the past year’s strategy situation.

The situation in the 8th year was basically the same as Zhang Liang had predicted in the state of the union address.

The life or death battle between Silver Hand and Azure Badge had given Great Xia the chance to roam the world and pick up the scraps, allowing them to receive massive gains in South America and Africa.

The key to the matter was that Great Xia had only started two wars to take down two huge pieces of land. Both resource consumption and soldier casualties were minimal.

Instead of fighting, they relied on the massive prestige and authority that Great Xia had established in the world and their exceptional planning.

Doing something so complex like it was easy was a matter that other dynasties could only envy.

For example, the situation of the Dawson Dynasty; they had spent so much to take down the low-population Maple Dynasty but had lost the Columbia region for it. They also lost a strong ally in the Brasilia Dynasty.

Whether it was a win or not could be debated.

The European dynasties did not need to be mentioned. They had been going all out for a year trying to take down the Ottoman Dynasty, yet they were still stuck in a tie situation.

Reality was like that; the strong became stronger while the weak became weaker.

With Great Xia’s development at present, it had become shockingly huge like a giant. It was also like a snowball; anywhere it rolled, the territory it earned was something that other dynasties could not even dream of.

To make matters even more terrifying, this giant was still filled with energy and had not reached its limit.

Out of the eight warzones of Great Xia, only the America warzone and the Africa warzone were active in the 8th year of Gaia; the remaining six had all been resting.

Foreseeably, in the 9th year of Gaia, these six warzones would be able to unleash shocking strength.

Along with the America Governor-General House and the Africa Governor-General House expanding, the Great Xia map was becoming more and more perfect. If one included Jidian City, Great Xia had land on all five continents.

The title of global empire was totally realized.

At the same time, the global chaos gave Great Xia’s industrialization a chance to soar.

In terms of internal politics, apart from removing the House level, they had simplified the organizational system, obtaining great results in industrialization, sports, transport, and education.

From focusing on the economy initially, they had moved to focusing on many different aspects.

The highly efficient internal affairs system showed in the military, allowing the Pacific Squadron to complete their equipment change early and rise from the ashes. They became the first squadron to fully consist of iron armored warships.

The top squadron in the world was the Pacific Squadron.

The Darkness Squadron that shone brightly for a period of time had stepped down and did not dare to disturb Nanjiang.

After changing the Pacific Squadron’s equipment, the Atlantic Squadron was next; this was also one of the reasons for Zhou Yu attending this meeting.

Compared to the Pacific Squadron, the Atlantic Squadron had an even more important mission due to the European dynasties situation. They also faced greater challenges.

Hence, completing the Atlantic Squadron’s equipment change appeared really important.

At the same time, the Imperial Court had restarted the Mediterranean Squadron rebuilding work. They would temporarily set up two divisions to focus on patrolling the Mediterranean Ocean region and strengthen the Empire’s control of the Mediterranean.

This would help to reduce the pressure on the Atlantic Squadron.

As for the specific building time, the matter would have to wait until the Atlantic Squadron’s equipment was changed before it could begin.

Luckily, they would only need half a year to renew the Atlantic Squadron with the current industrialization scale of Great Xia. At that time, they would stand at the same level as the Pacific Squadron.

Great Xia’s ocean supremacy that had started to shake would be established once more.

Of course, along with global industrialization proceeding, the European and American squadrons were also being renewed. It would be impossible for Great Xia to dominate the ocean like before.