The World Online
chapter-544

Translator: ryangohsf

Editor: Nora

Ouyang Shuo managing to recruit Su Zhe represented him basically gathering all the civil servants of Tianjing City.

Su Zhe did not want to involve himself in the faction struggles during his time in Taiping Country, and he just focused on doing his job well. As a result, he had formed an incredibly high-level of prestige and respect amongst the civil servants.

Hence, since Su Zhe had recognized Shanhai City, a group of the civil servants would follow him along.

That afternoon, Ouyang Shuo sent out his third imperial edict after taking charge of Tianjing City.

The contents targeted the civil servants of both prefectures.

The officials of the old dynasty, apart from those the two intel organizations blacklisted, could find a position in the various prefecture offices.

Of course, all the officials in the two prefectures would follow the same procedure as Wuzhou Prefecture. All of them would be removed from their post, then the Administration Department would hire them. As for the original official environment they had set up, it would be refreshed and renewed.

The fall of Guilin Prefecture brought one benefit, which was that Xiao He did not have to make up the numbers. The one thousand officials that the Administration Department had prepared were enough to run both Xunzhou and Zhen An Prefecture.

Along with the Taiping Army leaving, the situation in Tianjing City became clearer and clearer. At least on the surface, there was no one who would outright go against the orders of Shanhai City.

When Yang Xiuqing saw this happen, he knew his position, so he slowly broke away from the administrative matters of the city, passing it to the Lord. Meanwhile, he started to seclude himself in the manor, packing up his items to prepare to head for Leizhou Prefecture.

On the same day, the Dragon Legion officially completed their sweeping operation of Zhen An Prefecture. The next day, Baiqi would start to choose a place for their base. At the same time, he would help the Military Affairs Department build the Legion Corps Command Center.

At the same time, Baiqi would act as the envoy of Ouyang Shuo to contact Bai Hua's envoy Zhang Liao. They would discuss the problems both territories were facing in hope of building a long lasting relationship.

At the same time, such action aimed to reduce misunderstandings and to prevent the two sides from shooting one another at the border.

The Dragon Legion’s move into Zhen An Prefecture was a huge blow to the Yunnan City-State that was building up. No one would think that the troops Shanhai City had moved into Zhen An Prefecture was to defend against Consonance City.

The direction the troops were pointing toward did not need to be stated explicitly.

Before this, Shanhai City and Consonance City had worked together. In a short three days, they changed all the flags in Kunming Prefecture. Now, after dealing with Taiping Country, these two heavyweights truly made others feel terrified.

The next day, Yunnan City-State announced their establishment. Such an efficiency truly made one's mouth gape open.

Although the fall of Guilin Prefecture had an adverse effect on the public opinion of Shanhai City, no one could deny that Shanhai City, which had swallowed two prefectures, was the most significant power in the China region. Its position was unshakeable.

You have not heard about it, right?

The Chuanbei Province had worked together with the Wannan City-State to take down Guilin Prefecture. After West Gate Big Official returned, he contacted the other Lords in the province first to discuss the establishment of a city-state.

Especially after Han Xin brought his troops into Withered Flower Stronghold, to the Chuanbei Province. Just one Guilin Prefecture was not enough to make them to feel at ease.

They needed to quickly build the Chuanbei City-State.

The moment the news got out, the China region was thrown into an uproar.

With that, around Shanhai City, from west to east, there was the Yunnan City-State, the Chuanbei City-State, the Wannan City-State, and the Lingnan City-State.

All of a sudden, the southwest region became the focus of attention of the entire China region.

How would Shanhai City break out from this encirclement? This had become the greatest focus and interest of all the players. Some experts even started to debate and discuss the matter online, describing their theories.

The most accepted solution was for Shanhai City to attack west.

Which meant that Shanhai City would work together with Consonance City to remove Yunnan Cty-State, calming down the west territory before dealing with the other city-states.

Such a theory, along with the Dragon Legion increasing their presence in the area, terrified the Yunnan City-State. In the following new year, it seems like all these Lords would not be able to feel at ease.

12th month, 4th day, the king’s palace was completely torn down.

The vast king’s palace had been reduced to flat land, and it was now a thing of the past. At the same time, the same place, they started the construction of the Xunzhou Prefecture prefecture office.

The new replacing the old represented the change from old to new political philosophies.

At this point, Taiping Country had officially fallen, and they had dropped out of the race for the wilderness.

That afternoon, the Business Division held a massive auction on the square in front of the old palace. In less than two hours, all the items were sold out, fetching 110 thousand gold.

Amongst them, there were some actual merchants that planned to sell the raw materials, commoners that needed to renovate their residence, and also the loyalists to Hong Xiuquan.

The Military Intelligence Division and the Black Snake Guards worked with one another, checking through all their backgrounds and trying their best to not allow anyone to slip through. They would utterly silence the influence of Taiping Country on the two prefectures.

At the same time, the Black Snake Guards had started to investigate the tens of thousands of villages in the two prefectures. They cleaned out all the people that secretly worshipped the old king and dealt with all of them heavily.

All of these actions were naturally to pave the way for the rule of Shanhai City.

As for the funds they obtained from the auction, Ouyang Shuo did not throw it into the construction of Xunzhou and Zhen An Prefectures. Instead, he directed it toward the costs of expanding the military and the compensations for those that had suffered casualties.

With that, the two newly occupied prefectures, including the Wuzhou Prefecture from before, did not cause any burden on the territory finances.

Along with the auction ending, the Black Snake Guards started to initiate a cleaning operation within the city. Those that were on the blacklist, be it officials, merchants, or those loyalist buyers during the auctions, were all sentenced to death.

In just one day, two hundred people had died.

All of a sudden, the matter caused a ruckus within Tianjing City.

Helplessly, Ouyang Shuo could only personally come out to calm the people, making it clear that they were just getting rid of the scum. Only then did Tianjing City return to normal.

12th month, 5th day, Bao Shuya finally arrived at Tianjing City.

Cui Shousi had come along with him. Cui Shousi would spend one day here to obtain the instructions for his role before moving off to Zhen An Prefecture.

Two days earlier, Mulan Yue had led five hundred odd officials to move into Zhen An Prefecture and take over the administrative matters. The 1st and 2nd divisions of the Dragon Legion protected them on the way.

Along with Mulan Yue was also her bodyguard, Li Feixue.

It was said that Li Feixue was ready to establish a sect in Zhen An Prefecture and Mulan Yue fully supported the matter.

Towards this, Ouyang Shuo naturally abided and supported it too.

The next day, under the accompaniment of a personal guards squad, Yang Xiuqing started to set off for Leizhou Prefecture.

12th month, 8th day, Ouyang Shuo started his trip and left Tianjing City.

The two independent mountain barbarian divisions left together with him. As for the others, they would temporarily remain in the city until the Xunzhou Garrison Division was established. Then, they would make their way to Shanhai City.

At this point, the Wuzhou Garrison Division had already been completed, and the 4th independent division of mountain barbarians was already en route to Shanhai City. They would reach the city in a few days.

Originally, Ouyang Shuo wanted to spend a period of time here in Tianjing City. Unfortunately, a letter from the Black Snake Guards gave him no choice; he had to leave.

Based on Black Snake Guards’ report, they had finally found Fan Li and Xi Shi.

And on the same day, Bai Xue had officially informed the Business Division of their decision. She said that her father had already acknowledged moving the Bai Trading Company over to Shanhai City.

If they said that between Fan Li and Bai Gui there was not something going on, even if one beat Ouyang Shuo to death, he still would not believe it.

As for the invitation from the Black Snake Guards, Fan Li was unexpectedly casual with it, accepting it before leaving to move into Shanhai City.

Based on their words, as long as they reached the nearest imperial city, they would be able to teleport to Shanhai City quickly.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo needed to set off early on the path back home.

If one took note of the time, Ouyang Shuo had left Shanhai City for a total of two months, and it was time to return.

12th month, 12th day, Ouyang Shuo led his troops and reached Mulan Stronghold.

Inside the stronghold, Ouyang Shuo had a short one day stay. During his stay, he had an in-depth discussion with Du Ruhui about the specific military organization and related personnel changes.

As expected from this capable official, in such a short time, he was able to turn the rough plan into an over ten page, more than ten thousand words, proposal.

Of course, he had some help from the various divisions under the Military Affairs Department. Especially War Secretary Zhao Kuo, who played a considerable role. He had become Du Ruhui’s most important assistant.

The next day, Ouyang Shuo led his troops and left once more.

Along with him was Li Xiucheng, Wang Yucheng, Xiao Chaogui, and Feng Yunshan. These four were really stubborn, and till date, they still were not willing to surrender.

When Ouyang Shuo saw this situation, he decided that he would rather just bring them all back to Shanhai City and deal with them there.

12th month, 15th day, Ouyang Shuo smoothly reached Shanhai City.

At the north gate of the city, Xiao He led the officials and generals out, kneeling down to welcome him. Such a majestic scene shocked the entire Shanhai City.

This officially announced the return of the king.

When he returned to Shanhai City, Ouyang Shuo allowed both mountain barbarian independent divisions to move into the imperial city barracks. Following which, he did not see anyone and just directly moved into the Governor-General Manor back hall.

After leaving his home for so long, Ouyang Shuo naturally missed his family.

The cute Bing'er, and the gentle Song Jia; he had thought of them every day and night.

Only at this moment was Ouyang Shuo able to put down the pressure and stress from his work and fully relax.