Chapter 460: Changes Had Occurred

“Young Lord, were those spears and arrows on those ox carriages outside the manufacturing bureau really manufactured by the villagers from neighboring villages?”

Upon hearing Yu Qing’s question, Yan Liqiang lifted his eyes from the court bulletin in his hands and looked outside through the slightly ajar stained glass window. He smiled as he noticed that the carriage was already on the public road, “Yes, all the weapons in the manufacturing bureau, such as the long spears and arrows, are now being manufactured by the villagers!”

The court bulletin was delivered from the Pingxi Prefectural Governor’s Office last night. Before Yan Liqiang left Yuntao County last night, he had only casually mentioned it and Wang Jianbei requested someone to have it delivered to Yan Liqiang. Thereafter, whenever the Prefectural Governor’s Office received the court bulletin from the imperial court, they would make one copy to send to the manufacturing bureau so that Yan Liqiang could learn about the latest happenings in the imperial court.

“Young Lord, are you not worried about the qualities of the items produced by the villagers?” Yu Qing’s glowing eyes were filled with curiosity.

“Of course I’m not worried!” Yan Liqiang shook his head. “The artisans in the manufacturing bureau are human and likewise, the villagers are also human. In fact, you only need to provide the opportunity and guidance to those villagers and teach them how to manufacture the items. Meanwhile, the manufacturing bureau can conduct proper product examination checks. This will let villagers earn money by producing quality items and what those villagers are capable of will probably exceed our expectations. They are actually amazing!”

Long spears and arrows were nothing in comparison to Yan Liqiang’s previous life where Chinese farmers created a lot of miracles. Sometimes, as long as there was a leader leading the village under the right conditions, it wouldn’t take long for those farmers who previously only knew how to work in the fields to come out with something that could be a pillar of the industry or even become the first in the world with their shocking speed and creativity. Gears, lighter, belts, speakers and even military weapons were of no challenge to them. Some even sold drawings to make money. Once the villagers throughout the entire village put down their hoes and picked up their brushes, they transformed into artists. On the other hand, there were also villages that made money from fraud and robbery, so it all depended on what sort of opportunities were given to them. At times, the number one driving force was not science and technology, but poverty. Due to poverty, those people would grab hold of any available opportunities and they would be bursting with the eagerness to learn and the motivation to research. They would do every single task to the best of their ability.

“There’s no one else who can enable them to do this other than you, Young Lord! So you’re the amazing one!” Yu Qing looked at Yan Liqiang in admiration. The little girl didn’t know what Yan Liqiang did in Huanglong County and Yuntao County before this. Now that Yan Liqiang brought her out to look around, she was looking at him with sparkles in her eyes.

“Sometimes, amazing miracles can be created with the lowest cost when poverty is combined with the spirit of artisans!” Yan Liqiang sighed in amazement.

“I can’t really get what you are saying, but I feel like whatever you say must be right, Young Lord!” Yu Qing smiled at Yan Liqiang sweetly.

Yan Liqiang poked Yu Qing’s nose, then focused on reading the court bulletin in his hands.

—On the 13th day of the eleventh lunar month in the 16th year of the Yuanping reign, the Minister of Rites, Gong Zicheng, passed away due to illness. His Majesty granted him the Wu Xin title…

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—On the 18th day of the eleventh lunar month in the 13th year of the Yuanping reign, an earthquake occurred in Suyang Prefecture of Xu Province. The northern gate tower in Suyang City collapsed during the earthquake. There were over a hundred thousand victims in the disaster and around three thousand houses collapsed during the earthquake. The imperial court allocated one hundred thousand taels of silver as disaster relief.

…

—On the 26th day of the eleventh lunar month in the 13th year of the Yuanping reign, Qinshui Prefecture of Hai Province sighted a comet streaking across the sky. The comet fragments crashed in the southeastern part of Qinshui Prefecture. The impact created a crater in the ground, and the loud crash could be heard from miles away. This led to a forest fire which burned for three days before it was finally extinguished by a snowfall.

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Yan Liqiang already knew about the events before the eleventh lunar month as stated on the court bulletin. There were no changes in the things that should have happened or should still be happening. However, when Yan Liqiang saw the content for the twelfth lunar month, he immediately felt a burst of energy because he finally saw some news about Sun Bingchen.

On the twelfth lunar month last year and the first lunar month this year, Sun Bingchen had taken down the White Lotus Society and captured nearly a thousand bandits and some important people from the organization across the southern provinces. The news sent shockwaves across the nation and the imperial court even gave a commendation. The Emperor was delighted and appointed Sun Bingchen as the Crown Prince’s personal guard. In addition, he also conferred ten thousand taels of gold, thousand rolls of brocades, ten handfuls of pearls, and an imperial sword. With that, Sun Bingchen’s reputation suddenly skyrocketed.

The White Lotus Society, which was supposedly in the south at this time, immediately withered because of Sun Bingchen. They were no longer operating at the same scale as what Yan Liqiang had observed in the Heavenly Realm back then. They were only mentioned twice at the end of the court bulletin and they only existed in a few counties. So far, there had not been any reports on cities, counties, or prefectures being under attack.

After reading the news on the court bulletin, Yan Liqiang knew that the letter that he sent to Sun Bingchen had finally taken effect. The things that were supposed to happen had changed quietly. The White Lotus Society which wreaked havoc in the northern provinces last year was suddenly restricted to an extent and countless people were spared from being the sacrifices of war.

After Sun Bingchen, Yan Liqiang also saw the news about the Southeastern Navy General of the Great Han Empire, Zheng Huaian.

On the first lunar month in the 14th year of Yuanping reign, the Southeastern Navy General Zheng Huaian was out on a mission to capture bandits on the sea. He was ‘unfortunately’ injured by the cannon from a pirate’s ship and was in a ‘coma’…

A week after Zheng Huaian’s ‘accident’, the Great Han Empire’s Southeastern Deputy Navy General Zeng Jiuming and Southeastern Navy General’s Office Local Magistrate Li Zhaofeng encountered pirates when they were on the sea and had ‘died in a heroic manner’. Thus, both of them became the highest-ranking navy generals in the Great Han Empire that were killed by pirates in the recent century.

However, the record that Zeng Jiuming and Li Zhaofeng had set only lasted for less than a month. By the second lunar month of the 14th year of Yuanping reign, a group of violent pirates of unknown origin suddenly came onshore to ambush Hai Provincial Governor Ruan Yuanzhou and his party who were on a sea patrol. As a result, Ruan Yuanzhou was murdered, along with the other prefectural governors and military governors that were with him.

In the beginning of the 14th year of the Yuanping reign in the Great Han Empire, the terms ‘White Lotus Society’ and ‘pirates’ frequently appeared in the court bulletin.

An even more shocking event happened in the fourth lunar month. According to a statement on the court bulletin, many high-ranking officers from the Great Han Empire’s Southeastern Navy and Zheng Huaian who was supposedly ‘recovering at home from a serious injury’ suddenly ‘disappeared’ overnight. Disappearing together with them were the entire members of the Great Han Empire’s Southeastern Navy fleet, as well as the family members of Zheng Huaian and the other navy generals. Up until now, the imperial court remained clueless on the whereabouts of Zheng Huaian and all of the Southeastern Navy fleet’s members. At least according to the latest court bulletin updates, there was still no news about it…

Others who read the news of Zheng Huaian on the court bulletin might’ve been shocked and confused, but Yan Liqiang knew everything. Zheng Huaian who was unwilling to die inside the prison along with his family had finally made up his mind. Regardless if it was Zeng Jiuming or Li Zhaofeng from the Southeastern Navy or Hai Provincial Governor Ruan Yuanzhou, they were all on Lin Qingtian’s side. Zheng Huaian wiped out all of Lin Qingtian’s accomplices so that Lin Qiangtian would be left with nothing, then brought the entire Southeastern Navy including their families to the sea.

By now, the Southeastern Navy and Zheng Huaian might have already claimed one of the islands around the vast eastern ocean of the Great Han Empire to build their own empire. Zhen Huaian was indeed a ruthless character…

Compared to Zheng Huaian, there was no news yet from the Storm Army on the northeastern side. Long Feicheng was still keeping a low profile as usual and hardly appeared on the court bulletin.

Yan Liqiang was already very satisfied with this. He would consider it a success as long as he could foil Lin Qingtian’s plans.

While Yan Liqiang was focused on reading the court bulletin in his hands, Yu Qing had obediently lit sandalwood inside the carriage. Shrouded by the sandalwood fragrance, Yan Liqiang’s carriage drove into Pingxi City and soon arrived at the entrance of the Pingxi Prefecture Martial Arts Academy…

Yan Liqiang sent Hu Haihe and Yu Qing to look for a place to rest, then opened the carriage door and got out. He lifted his head to look at the place that he was very familiar with. After looking for a while, Yan Liqiang smiled and walked through the martial arts academy’s door…