"Heh!"
In the bedroom of the Prime Minister's mansion, Chu Chen, wearing a thin winter coat, sat by the fireplace and let out a cold laugh as he listened to the report from the Dark Department. "These noble families and powerful officials seem to only pay lip service and not true obedience. They outwardly cooperate with my new policies, but secretly plot against me. Do they really think my Embroidered Uniform Guard is just for show and can't detect their ill intentions?"
The Embroidered Uniform Guard now has thirty-one thousand official members, not including auxiliary personnel. This number alone has spread the presence of the Embroidered Uniform Guard to all counties and prefectures in both the Yunyue Kingdom and the neighboring Chen Kingdom.
Coupled with the significant investment of money, countless auxiliary personnel secretly provide intelligence to the Embroidered Uniform Guard in exchange for silver. The minor schemes of the noble families and powerful officials in the Yunyue Kingdom are impossible to hide from his eyes.
On this point alone, the noble families and powerful officials are unaware. In their minds, the Embroidered Uniform Guard is still only a force of three thousand, capable of fully monitoring Shuangyue City, limitedly monitoring Shuangyue Prefecture, and having a general understanding of the entire country.
Precisely because of this, the noble families and powerful officials dare to plot in secret, attempting to commit treason.
They dare not conspire in Shuangyue City, but surely they dare outside Shuangyue Prefecture? Do they think the Embroidered Uniform Guard outside Shuangyue Prefecture is not as omnipotent and wouldn't know about their actions?
"These people won't shed a tear until they see the coffin. Since that's the case, I'll let someone play with them properly."
Chu Chen looked at his remaining points with a cold smile. He still had 23,500 points, enough to exchange for some items in the redemption store to play with them.
"You may go now."
"Yes!"
After the Dark Department left, Chu Chen opened the Life Simulator system and clicked on the redemption store module, selecting the special category.
[One Thousand Light Cavalry Summon Card, priced at two thousand points.]
[Qi and Blood Pills: Provide the qi and blood required for the three realms of Martial Apprentices for cultivation. Using these pills can greatly increase the qi and blood within the body. Price: one hundred bottles for one point, each bottle containing one hundred Qi and Blood Pills.]
[Ding! Ten Thousand Light Cavalry Summon Cards, totaling twenty thousand points, do you wish to redeem?]
"Yes!"
[Ding! Congratulations to the host for obtaining ten Thousand Light Cavalry Summon Cards. Twenty thousand points have been deducted. Two thousand five hundred points remain.]
[Ding! One thousand bottles of Qi and Blood Pills require one hundred points, do you wish to redeem?]
"Yes!"
[Ding! Congratulations to the host for obtaining ten thousand bottles of Qi and Blood Pills. One hundred points have been deducted. Two thousand four hundred points remain.]
Chu Chen looked at the items in the system space backpack and let out a cold laugh. He got up, summoned over a dozen members of the Dark Department from his surroundings, and with a wave of his hand, thousands of bottles of Qi and Blood Pills were stacked on the open ground in front of the door.
"Transfer all of these to the Embroidered Uniform Guard organization and have them speed up their cultivation progress."
"Yes!"
The dozen or so members of the Dark Department immediately found burlap sacks, continuously filled them, and then headed to the front yard. They placed them on carriages, then hung the Prime Minister's mansion's banner, and drove the carriages towards the Embroidered Uniform Guard department.
Half an hour later, outside Guyue City.
By continuously consuming Foundation Establishment Pills along the way, he was able to sustain the consumption of the Feather Ascension technique, arriving at Guyue Prefecture in just half an hour.
"Phew, this Feather Ascension technique consumes a lot. With my Qi Transformation realm's spiritual energy, it only lasted for a quarter of an hour. But the speed is quite fast, almost like a hundred kilometers per hour in my previous life."
After resting briefly at the spot, Chu Chen took out the ten Thousand Light Cavalry Summon Cards from his system space backpack and used them all.
Instantly, a vast expanse of open ground was filled with an endless sea of cavalry.
The summoned cavalry were about to pay respects to Chu Chen, but he stopped them using a telepathic method.
This technique was a combination of telepathy and the Lion's Roar technique, capable of transmitting messages within a five-mile radius. The further the distance, the weaker the sound, and the closer the distance, the better the telepathic effect. It was a technique Chu Chen specifically developed for such situations.
It could be considered a technique he created independently after arriving in this world.
"Three thousand men form an army, divided into three corps. The remaining thousand will be under the overall command. Your mission, under the guidance of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, is to intercept all supplies transported by the noble families and powerful officials to Mengdie County!"
"Remember, do not reveal your identities! Also, these pills are for you. Take them back and cultivate for more than ten days, at least reaching the Martial Apprentice realm before taking action."
After listening to Chu Chen's orders, the cavalry remained silent, sitting on their horses and cupping their hands towards Chu Chen.
Chu Chen nodded, then performed the Feather Ascension technique and departed in the direction he came from.
After Chu Chen left, having distributed five thousand bottles of Qi and Blood Pills, the temporarily selected generals of this cavalry army waved their hands and quietly departed with their subordinates.
Shizhou, Anlan Prefecture, Mengdie County.
Since the Second Princess Mengdie was enfeoffed here, the magistrate of Mengdie County was transferred away. The entire county's military and political power was handed over to the Second Princess Mengdie.
At this moment, she was sitting in the simply renovated royal residence, looking at the documents on her desk with joy.
"The Wang and Qin families of Xiázhou, the Li and Zhou families of Dìngyuán Prefecture, the Wu and Zheng families of Tōngzhōu, and the Huang and Liu families of this very Shizhou – a total of eight noble families support this Princess!"
"Such a large amount of supplies and personnel are gradually converging here. It truly is delightful~"
She gently picked up a document and caressed it tenderly like a beloved beauty, a look of intoxication appearing on her face.
After requesting her enfeoffment, she casually handed over her lifelong marriage to the Empress. She then brought her entire retinue and treasury from the Second Princess's mansion to this place for her enfeoffment, with the title "Liu," hence "Princess Liu."
Compared to Prince Jing, her power as Princess Liu was significantly reduced. According to regulations, unless she requested it herself, enfeoffed princesses were usually assigned to prefectures and counties near the border. Furthermore, in terms of military and political power, there was no upper limit on the number of soldiers, and taxes paid were only one-tenth.
However, this time, the Empress, considering the past incidents of princesses fighting for the throne when she ascended the throne, and recalling Chu Chen's words from a long time ago, had weakened the power of enfeoffed princesses.
The enfeoffed locations were no longer prefectures and counties near the border. This move weakened the influence of the enfeoffed princesses on the border armies. Their military power was also restricted, no longer unlimited but capped at ten thousand men.
The tax payments were also no longer one-tenth, but paid as usual. In other words, the income of a prince was the highest level of grain and commercial taxes, requiring fifty percent of the net profit to be paid as agricultural and commercial taxes.
In addition, some officials' salaries, which the imperial family would normally bear, were also canceled. The number of officials, clerks, and generals was also limited.
With these restrictions, both large and small, the power of the enfeoffed princes today was far less than in the past. Yet, Li Mengdie still accepted the enfeoffment with great satisfaction.