An unused sword boat?

There were some surprised looks in the Imperial Study, not knowing why the Grand Tutor asked about this the moment he sat down. They had thought the primary topic for today would be when Great Li would publicly announce the Grand Tutor’s identity, choosing an auspicious day for the court to hold a celebration and declare it to the world.

The Great Li sword boats and mountain ferry boats were battlefield heavyweights, the result of close collaboration between the Great Li Dynasty and the Mohists, costing the court a great deal of manpower, material resources, and financial resources. In recent decades, the reason why the Ministry of Works could join the Ministry of War in criticizing the Ministry of Revenue was thanks to these sword boats and ferry boats.

Those few “docks” were the most restricted areas in Great Li. Even the highest-ranking military official, the Inspector-General, would need layers of approval and verification, as well as simultaneous nods and written approval from His Majesty the Emperor and Grand Tutor Cui Chan, to personally witness the “launch” process of these two “treasures.” After Cui Chan secretly stepped down as Grand Tutor, no Inspector-General had been able to go to the docks in recent years. Since Inspector-Generals couldn’t go, the other officials in the capital and auxiliary capital, big and small, could forget about it.

One of the extremely important post-war duties of the cultivators from the Great Li Earth Branches lineage was to take turns being responsible for the security of those few docks, guarding against internal enemies and leaks.

Shen Chen, the Minister of War, was a veteran of three dynasties, already a frail old man.

When the old minister was still relatively young, he had criticized Grand Tutor Cui as being an outsider. This old man had never been on a battlefield in his life, yet he was in charge of the Ministry of War.

Holding his cane with both hands, Shen Chen smiled and turned to look at the new Vice Minister of the Right beside him. Wu Wangcheng was a new face who had just become qualified to attend the small court assembly. He was in his forties, promoted to Vice Minister from a provincial general. He was someone who had crawled out of piles of the dead multiple times, having risen through the ranks from the Great Li border army. He had no connections with the major noble families and was a trusted confidant of Prince Luo, Song Mu.

When he was first ordered to enter the capital, Wu Wangcheng had personally spent money to rent a haunted house rumored to be extremely ill-omened.

He was still somewhat reluctant to be a capital official. Even during his audience with His Majesty the Emperor, Wu Wangcheng maintained this clear attitude, stating that he wanted to go to the Wild World battlefield to lead troops and fight.

Generally speaking, being able to rise to the rank of provincial general through military merit, becoming a frontier official, and then transferring to a capital official position, being promoted to Vice Minister, especially a Vice Minister of War, was an invincible career path in the Great Li officialdom! It was something to be envied. After training for five or six years in the capital’s central government and the Ministry of War, and then being sent out to the provinces, a future “beautiful posthumous title” personally bestowed by the emperor rather than recommended by the Ministry of Rites was almost guaranteed.

Seeing that the old minister was just smiling at him, Wu Wangcheng stood up and said, “Reporting to the Grand Tutor, the three docks, including Huangtiandang in Yuzhou, have a total of six finished and under construction ships. They are planned to be dispatched to the Wild World battlefield around the beginning of next summer, along with three mountain ferry boats. While the sword boats are journeying to the Wild World, they can escort the ferry boats. Both the six sword boats and the three ferry boats have been reported and registered with the Central Plains Wenmiao.”

Neither the sword boats nor the ferry boats had been named yet. According to custom, they would be named after provinces, and the various regions of Great Li were currently vying for this. However, this was not something Wu Wangcheng would be foolish enough to bring up at today’s meeting.

Chen Pingan nodded, quite familiar with the construction cycle of the Great Li sword boats. “Then that means there are six unused sword boats. As long as they can take flight.”

Wu Wangcheng asked in confusion, “May I ask the Grand Tutor, why the rush to launch the sword boats? Has something changed on the Wild World battlefield? Did the Wenmiao temporarily decide and urgently need sword boats to reinforce a certain area?”

Since Song Changjing and Song Mu had not notified Great Li to mobilize the sword boats in advance, from the perspective of Wu Wangcheng of the Ministry of War, it could only be the intention of the Central Plains Wenmiao.

Chen Pingan gestured with his hand and smiled, “Vice Minister Wu, please be seated to discuss matters. There is no need to stand up to reply afterwards. I remember this is an old rule of the small court assembly. Or are the elders colluding to deliberately not tell you, wanting to see you make a fool of yourself for as long as possible? Hmm, it seems this is also an unwritten old rule.”

The room erupted in laughter.

Both old rules were initiated by Grand Tutor Cui back in the day.

Wu Wangcheng honestly said, “When I first started attending the small court assembly, I was indeed made a fool of for nearly ten days. It was Minister Zhao who privately told me about these two old rules and reminded me not to stand up to answer questions during future discussions. When I returned to my own Ministry of War and asked Old Minister Shen, he instead said that Great Li did not have such officialdom bad habits and told me earnestly that as a new face, being courteous would not hurt anyone. Get a familiar face first, and later when you go to the Ministry of Revenue to beg, perhaps the aloof Minister Mu will be willing to grant you an audience and curse you a few times.”

As he spoke, this Vice Minister, who was in his prime and held a high position, blushed deeply. He was nervous!

Zhao Duanjin, the Minister of Rites, remained composed, picked up the celadon tea bowl on the side table, and took a sip of tea.

The dog-eat-dog antics between the top officials of the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Revenue were a common occurrence, nothing to be surprised about.

Minister of Revenue Mu Yan immediately looked at the young Grand Tutor, whose expression was as usual. “You are beggars?! Coming to my Ministry of Revenue to beg for food?! If your Ministry of War had any conscience, you wouldn’t say such insane and outrageous things! I’m willing to give you the cold shoulder. If I had even a little extra money in my pocket, wouldn’t I prioritize your Ministry of War?”

“If you really push me, next time you, Wu Wangcheng, come to the Ministry of Revenue and falsely claim to be a beggar, I’ll open the door, hold a bowl, and kowtow to you a few times first!”

As long as he wasn’t talking to the Grand Tutor, Wu Wangcheng was not intimidated by Minister Mu at all. “Then two beggars can exchange New Year greetings. I’m just a Vice Minister, it’s not shameful, and I still make a profit.”

Chen Pingan slightly turned his head and looked at the Emperor, who was also watching the spectacle, and smiled, “Your Majesty, it wasn’t like this the last time I attended a meeting.”

Emperor Song He smiled and said, “The Grand Tutor is too kind.”

After sitting down again, Wu Wangcheng’s mood became complicated. It wasn’t that he was worried about the new Grand Tutor being generous at the expense of others, but if the Great Li Dynasty maintained too close a relationship with the Central Plains Wenmiao, Wu Wangcheng felt there might be problems. Perhaps the Grand Tutor had his own overall considerations, but for a military general like Wu Wangcheng, who came from the battlefield, the Central Plains Wenmiao’s meddling felt like putting shackles on the Great Li cavalry. It was estimated that the Wenmiao would definitely give Great Li some compensation in return, but Wu Wangcheng felt that if that were the case, would the Great Li cavalry still be the same Great Li cavalry that was unmatched in combat strength and military achievements across the Nine Continents?

What the poets called “golden bridle, azure steed, white jade saddle” was something Wu Wangcheng scoffed at.

Wu Wangcheng was very afraid that the Great Li cavalry would become cannon fodder for the Wenmiao, a mere embellishment for the Confucian saints.

Perhaps neither His Majesty the Emperor nor the room full of Great Li high officials, nor even the young Grand Tutor, would have thought of a problem that would make the Vice Minister of War think so deeply and complexly.

Wu Wangcheng’s career path was completely different from those attending the small court assembly in the room. He had followed the Great Li cavalry all the way to the central part of the Bottle Reed Continent, fought to Old Dragon City, and was a brave general of the border army who galloped along the coast. Then he fought and retreated all the way back to the auxiliary capital battlefield, having served under Su Gaoshan, Cao Ping, and the prince Song Mu. It wasn’t that Wu Wangcheng was arrogant, but honestly speaking, everyone present, of course, had made great contributions to Great Li, but they only knew about the bravery and brutality of the Wild World demon army on paper. So he dared to say that although he was the lowest-ranking and least experienced official present today, he was the one who knew best how difficult, tragic, and brutal the battle at Sword Qi Great Wall had been.

Wu Wangcheng stopped speaking several times, wanting to speak but hesitating.

He wanted to say some inappropriate things, but he was afraid of his shortsightedness and offending this last Hidden Official who had presided over the battle at Sword Qi Great Wall.

The Vice Minister had no choice but to tightly grip the armrest of his chair and silently admonish himself in his heart, not to rush, wait and see.

Find an opportunity, and then dare to speak a few words from his heart to the Grand Tutor.

Chen Pingan seemed to change the topic and casually asked, “After that national letter was issued, how is it? Are there any excuses for not coming?”

South of the Great River, half of the Bottle Reed Continent, various states were established or re-established, separating themselves from the Great Li Dynasty, their former suzerain. Some of these courts and immortal sects wanted to remove the stone tablets that Great Li had erected on all immortal mountains back then. During the last meeting, the high-ranking mountain and river gods of the Bottle Reed Continent were all present. During that time, the Southern Peak Fan Junmao had provided a list that someone had evaluated as being of little weight and having few names.

Leading the charge were the Dragon River Dynasty, which had a foundation similar to the Yellow Court State, and Fengjiao Mountain, which only had one Nascent Soul Ancestor in charge of its dojo.

Soon, the Great Li Ministry of Rites and Ministry of War jointly issued a national letter document, asking the Ministers of Rites from various states’ courts and the virtuous immortal masters to come to the Great Li capital to discuss this matter.

This national letter document, which absolutely did not conform to the old rules of Great Li, even listed all the state names and immortal sect names without sparing any ink, a total of over sixty of them, all listed.

The calligraphy was extremely beautiful Great Li government script, clearly from the hand of the Minister of Rites, Zhao Duanjin. However, the text itself seemed extremely murderous.

Dong Hu, the Vice Minister of Rites, secretly cleared his throat and immediately reported, “Not only did they all come, they all arrived successively and reported to the Honglu Temple before the agreed date, without any omissions. In addition, there were over thirty people who were not on the list, all voluntarily wanting to show goodwill towards our Great Li court, some from the coast wanting to set up high-standard maritime trade offices to facilitate sea trade with Great Li, or some finding excuses saying there are remnants of demon races causing trouble in their territories, but their national strength is insufficient to deal with them, wanting our Great Li to dispatch a garrison to maintain stability on the mountains, and there were even a few small states that voluntarily wanted to become Great Li vassals.”

The old Vice Minister noticed that the young Grand Tutor seemed somewhat disappointed, but he didn’t know if the Grand Tutor felt that the Ministry of Rites had handled the matter too slowly, or if he regretted that those fellows hadn’t given Great Li an opportunity.

Ma Yuan, the Minister of Justice, smiled and asked, “Grand Tutor, does the Ministry of Justice’s Secret Records Department need to update the realm of the Fallen Mountain cultivator, ‘Xi Zhu’?”

Chen Pingan nodded and said, “Just add ‘(Fourteenth Realm)’ in the parentheses in the booklet I previously gave.”

Ma Yuan asked, “What about the Grand Tutor himself? Does our Ministry of Justice need to improve the records?”

Chen Pingan shook his head and said, “No need, I am still at the Immortal realm for now. We’ll talk about it when I reach the Ascension realm. At that time, add the Green Lotus Sword Sect and combine everything for registration.”

Ma Yuan smiled and nodded. Previously, Chen Pingan had voluntarily given a booklet that generally introduced the assets of Fallen Mountain.

Currently, the stranger known by the Daoist name Xi Zhu and Bai Jing, who is currently using the alias Xie Gou, did not have their demon race sword cultivator realms indicated in the booklet.

The last time he sat here for a meeting, Chen Pingan was still at the Nascent Soul realm.

In the previous meeting, many established matters in the room had been steadily implemented by the Great Li court, and no one dared to take it lightly.

This was the new official’s “three fires” of the young Grand Tutor. The formulation of many policies involved the lifeblood of the court and the entire situation of the Bottle Reed Continent, and it was a brand new exam! Everyone knew that the examiner and mentor who set the questions and graded the papers was the new Grand Tutor.

For example, there were new rules for the series of promotions and changes among the mountain and river gods. Furthermore, the Great Li court had been secretly working diligently during this time to help the candidate sects like Cloud霞Mountain, Changchun Palace, and Old Dragon City find opportunities to be promoted to official sects and remove the “candidate” designation, within the rules of the Wenmiao. For example, several groups of accompanying cultivators were added to the front lines on the Wild World battlefield.

The new Magistrate of Qiantang was Cen Wenqian, who had jumped grades in the mountain and river officialdom to a dizzying and astonishing degree.

Although Wu Yun did not “naturally” fill the vacancy of Magistrate of Qiantang, her divine golden body was also improved. This water god, known for her violent personality across the continent, in addition to her expanded jurisdiction, also served as the second-in-command in the Qiantang Water Mansion, assisting Cen Wenqian in governing the Qiantang River area. It is currently rumored that it won’t be long before Wu Yun becomes the Magistrate of Qiantang again, and as for Cen Wenqian, she is directly aiming for the “Earl” position of the Great River. If a listener asks why, the speaker will raise a finger and point to the sky.

However, there was a small interlude during this period, one matter was temporarily changed. The term for the inspection and evaluation of mountain and river gods within the Great Li Dynasty’s borders was changed from the original, too-short ten-year term to a relatively more relaxed and reasonable thirty years.

As for the numerous mountain and river gods in the southern part of the continent who were previously defined as “Yin shrines” by the Great Li court and punished by the destruction of mountains and temples, because of their “entry into the capital” to discuss the issue of the preservation of mountain peak inscriptions, many gods in the south who were secretly re-“canonized” as orthodox by the local courts and had their temples rebuilt and golden bodies reshaped, were all instantly reduced back to their original forms overnight, and their hard-won orthodox status was temporarily stripped by the court. The reason was consistently that the Great Li Ministry of Rites said (of course, it was implied) that the Great Li court had originally intended to proactively communicate and discuss with various states about restoring the divine positions of some suppressed gods to compensate for their past wrongdoings, but certain courts and immortal sects caused a significant commotion, wanting to remove that stone tablet. Since things had their priorities, Great Li would naturally deal with this matter first before discussing further, and as for the specific date, that would be decided later.

Coincidentally, the Southern Peak was preparing for a night tour banquet, and many immortal families in the south received a seemingly vague but in the officialdom, a straightforward answer from the Southern Peak’s Crown Prince Mountain, Caizhi Mountain, and the Mountain Lord Wang Juan. It was indeed so.

This quickly spread. Those mountain and river gods in the southern states who had already reshaped their golden bodies and re-established their temples began to re-examine the over sixty “names” on that Great Li national letter, saying, “Good, good, you good-for-nothing turtles who are full and have nothing to do, you are trying to harm us and make us Yin shrines again, right?”

As a result, the entire mountain and river officialdom of the Bottle Reed Continent, along with the courts below the mountains and the immortal sects on the mountains, was full of undercurrents, with bloodless weapons clashing everywhere.

Chen Pingan turned to look at Emperor Song He and proactively said, “According to Great Li’s rites, after each Great Li Grand Tutor steps down, their old seal needs to be handed over to the Ministry of Works for destruction. I will keep Cui Chan’s seal. When I am no longer the Grand Tutor, both official seals will be destroyed together. As for my office and residence in the capital, they will remain as before. Your Majesty, how is that?”

Song He smiled and nodded, “The Grand Tutor can decide on this matter himself.”

The official seal of Great Li Grand Tutor Chen Pingan had been completed, and it was indeed not a small matter, involving many formalities and rules. The Ministry of Rites and the Imperial Observatory selected the date, the Emperor initiated the calligraphy, the Ministry of Works was responsible for selecting the seal material and engraving, and in addition, the Five Peak Divine Lords of the Bottle Reed Continent, the Lords and Earls of the River God, the Capital City God Temple, the Civil and Military Temples, etc., each had their own “process.”

As for Grand Tutor Cui Chan’s old seal, it had remained on that table all these years.

As both Cui Chan’s junior brother and the new Grand Tutor, Chen Pingan, if he didn’t mention it, who would dare say anything?

Song He was actually quite curious about one thing.

That Great Master, the first disciple of the Sage Confucius, had personally recommended Chen Pingan to become a gentleman of the Academy, but it was surprisingly rejected by the Central Plains Wenmiao.

Rumor had it, just rumor, that Mao Siye of the Academy of Rites said that Chen Pingan had neither the experience of teaching in the Academy nor any published works, nor had he personally killed demons on the Bottle Reed Continent battlefield in his capacity as the master of Fallen Mountain. Since that was the case, how could the Wenmiao bestow upon him the title of gentleman? Let alone gentleman, even the status of a worthy person was not permissible, it was not in accordance with the rites.

At that time, a certain old man who was in charge of the Wenmiao affairs and presided over the overall situation of Haoran, surprisingly just stroked his beard and nodded, saying “Makes sense, makes sense.”

Then the old scholar suddenly let out a gasp and said that at the Chunshan Academy in Great Li’s Mianzhou, Mountain Master Chen seemed to have given temporary lectures, specifically offering courses on military strategy. The Songxue Lecture Hall in Mianzhou, which was directly established and managed by the Ministry of War, also seemed to intend to invite Chen Pingan to serve as a deputy lecturer and head of the hall.

Unexpectedly, Mao Xiaodong directly dropped a sentence, saying that they would talk about it again after he officially taught at Chunshan Academy, not as a temporary lecturer, and after he became a teacher at Songxue Lecture Hall.

The old scholar stroked his beard and pondered for a moment, only saying, “Alright, let’s discuss it again later.”

The marten-hatted young girl with two bright red cheek pouches, serving as her mountain master’s temporary death warrior and attendant, stood by the side of the corridor outside the Imperial Study.

Opposite her, the chief eunuch of the Directorate of Ceremonial, dressed in a vermilion python robe, had a head full of white hair, a fair complexion, and his hands folded over his abdomen. He looked straight ahead with a long, even breath.

He stood by the door, his back against the wall. The distance between his python robe and the wall had been one foot for so many years, without any deviation.

The “young girl” kept watching him. After all, the chief eunuch wasn’t blind, and she was staring at him so intently.

As the most powerful eunuch in Great Li, he knew more inside stories.

What was most memorable, besides her having a series of Daoist names, was the special nature of her dojo.

This made her origin as a demon race sword cultivator from the Wild World the least important matter, which could be ignored.

Xie Gou asked with a mental voice, “I’ve been here before, we’ve met, do you remember?”

As the old man who was the chief eunuch of Great Li, he couldn’t help but feel a little awkward. After all, there was only a wall separating them, and His Majesty was discussing state affairs with the Grand Tutor and a large group of court officials.

But pretending to be deaf and mute was also inappropriate, so the chief eunuch had no choice but to condense his voice into a thread and whisper, “Second Seat Xie, this old servant is bound by duty and cannot speak here. To be honest, even these two sentences must be recorded and filed without a single error.”

Xie Gou asked, “Is that a rule set by Grand Tutor Cui?”

The chief eunuch nodded slightly.

Xie Gou said, “Then what I said also needs to be recorded?”

The chief eunuch nodded.

Xie Gou’s eyes lit up and she continued speaking with a mental voice, “Then you just listen, old sir, I’ll say more!”

Ever since she knew she was good at writing those mountain and river travelogues, Second Seat Xie had been particularly motivated.

The eunuch who was called “old sir” was visibly stunned for a moment. Although the old man didn’t speak, he still smiled, then shook his head.

The marten-hatted girl asked a string of questions, “Old sir, is it difficult to publish books by block printing in our Great Li now? Of course, I’m not talking about the official court editions, I know my own limitations and would never hope for that. I just want to ask about privately run bookshops printing and booksellers selling books. Are there any explicit prohibitions from the court? Are the local officials strict? Do I need to secretly give money to the officials in charge to grease their palms?”

The chief eunuch was speechless for a moment. What in the world was all this?

Was this Ascension realm sword cultivator, who served as the second seat enshrined on Fallen Mountain, really just bored and trying to amuse him?

Xie Gou was a little anxious and said, “There are many rules in the palace, but even if you stick to them, old sir, you don’t have to speak. You can also use your eyes to indicate yes or no.”

The old man chuckled helplessly.

Xie Gou took out a booklet from her sleeve and walked to the old man’s side. “Since you’re not speaking, old sir, please take a look. Once you’ve seen it, you’ll know I’m not joking. I’m a serious scholar who can really write a travelogue. Take a look?”

The marten-hatted girl indeed held the book with both hands and spread open the pages.

The chief eunuch was helpless, only feeling that this matter was absurd. Did he really have a day like this?

However, the old man still lowered his head to look at the opening content of the travelogue. He wanted to see what this great demon, who had inexplicably switched from the Wild World to Fallen Mountain, was up to.

“Second day. Last night, I checked the almanac and it was auspicious for travel. It’s late spring with a cold snap, but fortunately, the sky cleared up. I set out with a close friend, with a bamboo cane and a straw hat, wearing straw sandals. Our Dao heart is firm, the clouds and water are misty, and we are free. We walked twenty li at a leisurely pace, passing through the territory of Qingping Prefecture. Seeing a fallen boundary marker by the road, I stopped to rub the inscription. My Dao heart was indeed difficult to calm. The mountains and rivers of the continent have been submerged for nearly twenty years, with floods, droughts, locust plagues, and wars in various states occurring one after another. The lives of the people below the mountains are even less than grass, and peace in the mountains is also difficult to speak of.”

“Over twenty years have passed like a spark from a stone or a flash of lightning. How can we not cherish our Dao cultivation and not accumulate Dao power?”

“The city’s livelihood is in decline, the market is deserted, and the faces of pedestrians on the streets are mostly sallow. Ten li outside the city, we rested at a small inn. Thirty li, we walked along the lake shore. The willows were graceful, and we walked in the shade. We crossed the dividing ridge and ascended the mountain along the sacred path. The Daoist temple in the mountain was dilapidated. We entered to borrow the stove to make fire. After the meal, we climbed to the summit to look out and saw a vast expanse of the great lake. Qingping Prefecture was right in front of our eyes, but in an instant, the wind and clouds rose, enveloping it out of sight. Thinking back to those years, traveling on foot was quite arduous, and we often couldn’t see human settlements. Seeing wolves, tigers, leopards, strange birds, exotic beasts, and fearsome mountain spirits and water monsters became commonplace…”

After patiently reading a page of the travelogue, the old man suddenly realized and thought that the young Grand Tutor had truly excellent literary talent, worthy of being described as having both substance and refinement. As expected of Grand Tutor Cui’s junior brother.

Xie Gou freed a hand, rubbed her marten hat, and grinned to herself, “This is the third edition, painstakingly crafted word by word, sentence by sentence. My mountain master only made slight modifications and didn’t do much polishing.”

The old man smiled without saying anything. The marten-hatted girl’s face was full of anticipation. “Old sir, how’s the literary talent? Is it considered showing skill in simplicity?”

The old man didn’t say anything, just slightly tilted his head. Xie Gou was confused. “What does that mean?”

The old man had no choice but to whisper a reminder, “Turn the page.”

Xie Gou’s heart settled, and she immediately turned the page.

“On the morning of the third day, we walked down the mountain. After over a hundred li, we stopped at Yang Family Inn for a brief rest. We bought dried food from the locals, spending eight fen of silver. After crossing the Encountering Immortals Bridge, the sky suddenly rained, and the road was muddy. We walked fifteen li to Dumb Beach, where the rain stopped and the sky cleared. We traveled by boat at night, and the passengers on the boat enjoyed talking about ghosts and monsters…”

The old man endured and endured, and once again broke the rule to speak, “Miss Xie, is the sentence ‘stopped to rub the inscription on the boundary marker’ on the first page of the travelogue something the Grand Tutor added on his own initiative?”

Xie Gou froze on the spot, both guilty and impressed. “Old sir’s skill is profound, you could tell that at a glance?! Alas, our mountain master added something unnecessary!”

The old man smiled without revealing it or explaining anything. Rubbing inscriptions was a refined pursuit for scholars, but what were you doing rubbing a boundary marker by the road?

After that, the old man would tilt his head, and the marten-hatted girl would turn the page. The old man occasionally commented. After reading about half of the travelogue booklet,

Xie Gou suddenly closed the book, threw it back into her sleeve, and squatted against the wall, rubbing her marten hat, looking unhappy. “I can see it now, old sir, you’re also a sly bird who sees through things but doesn’t say anything, very cunning. You’ve been secretly laughing at me, right?”

The old man hesitated for a moment, and surprisingly also squatted down, shaking his head and smiling, “I truly wasn’t laughing at Miss Xie.”

Xie Gou smiled and said, “Is it because old sir knows my realm? Are you afraid I’ll hold a grudge and stab you with my sword?”

The old man said, “Because Miss Xie misunderstood me as a scholar, and you were the first to call me old sir.”

Xie Gou chuckled, “Indeed, he’s a scholar. He cares about such trivial matters and keeps them in mind.”

This chief eunuch of the Directorate of Ceremonial quickly stood up.

What was “turning the page” today was more than just that mountain and river travelogue, it was our Great Li Dynasty, and the entire Bottle Reed Continent.

Inside the room, Chen Pingan asked, “After Old Master Guan passed away, the position of Minister of Appointments has been vacant. Does the court have any candidates?”

This question was truly too big. Either His Majesty the Emperor would speak personally, or the two Vice Ministers of Appointments would be responsible for reporting the general situation.

Chen Pingan held up his tea cup with both hands, and suddenly changed the topic, asking, “The situation in Qiu State, a vassal state within Hanzhou, has been dragging on for so long. What have you gentlemen discussed? Tell me, so I can broaden my horizons.”

The old Minister Shen Chen, who appeared to be dozing off, looked up but didn’t say anything. Vice Minister Wu Wangcheng wanted to speak, but the corner of his eye caught the old minister gently shaking his head.

The Grand Tutor had asked a question, and the Ministry of War remained silent. The atmosphere in the room instantly became heavy, silent, so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

Among the single-word states in the Bottle Reed Continent, putting aside the “royal surnames” in the south of the Great River, where one takes the stage after another and might be on the dragon throne today and a prisoner tomorrow, in the north, among Great Li’s vassal states, they could be counted on one hand. What Chen Pingan had discussed with Wei Bo earlier was this Qiu State, whose empress dowager was no longer ruling from behind the curtain and had just handed over power to the new ruler.

That young prince Han E of Qiu State, fourteen years old, was the younger brother of the ruler. The Minister of Rites, Liu Wenjin, also came to the Great Li capital, the suzerain state, to “court death” with him. It was said that he enjoyed reading frontier poems by candlelight and knew a little swordplay.

Emperor Song He was the first to break the silence and said, “This matter is not the fault of those present. It is my intention to wait until the Grand Tutor publicly appears, and this matter, along with the candidate for Minister of Appointments, will be decided together.”

Chen Pingan did not even look at Emperor Song He, he gently put down his tea cup, his eyes sharp as he stared at the important civil and military officials of Great Li in the room,

Slowly said, “Have the Ministries of War and Justice immediately submit a detailed list. Within the vassal state of Qiu State, from the Empress Dowager, the ruler, court officials, and border army commanders above, down to the so-called literati, martial heroes, and immortal sects on the mountains below, as long as they are determined to fight, record them all. There is no limit to the number.”

“If you are not prepared beforehand? It’s simple, I will sit here today and wait until your two ministries, filled with idlers, are ready.”

At this point, the young Grand Tutor narrowed his eyes and seemingly muttered to himself, “A small vassal state, Qiu State causing trouble, is it even worthy of being discussed alongside the selection of Great Li’s Minister of Appointments?”