Chapter 1046: Planning For Tough Times

The 80,000 cavalry were all lined up in an orderly manner. With 12 Dragon Horses pulling the carriage, it entered the wide streets.

The entire Gantian Mountain started to become boisterous. Flower petals scattered on both sides as everyone was joyous.

The loud discussion noises instantly subsided, replaced with loud cheers.

“Is it really Ruler?”

“Ruler finally returned!”

“These few years, without Ruler here, I just felt really uneasy…”

“With Ruler back, our Great Gan will sweep everyone and unify the Cloud World!”

“Unify your head! With Ruler back, those people will quieten down and be more well-behaved.”

Zong Shou’s eyes flashed. He felt a little guilty. During these 10 years, he really did very little for his people.

However, outside of the carriage, the wors.h.i.+p from the people came from their hearts.

But speaking of which, if he partic.i.p.ated more in governance, Great Gan might not have been as prosperous as it was now.

Then, he thought back to just now and instantly gritted his teeth. He smashed the railing he was holding onto into pieces!

*How preposterous! *

Xuanyuan Yiren was beside him, using her hand to cover her lips to suppress her laughter.

When Zong Shou used Spiritual Sense to listen out, he didn’t hide it from her which was how she found out.

At this moment, Xuanyuan Yiren laughed so much that she nearly cramped up, her image as the mother of the country was totally nonexistent.

Zong Shou laughed out and looked at her with a dark and sinister expression.

Xuanyuan Yiren held her breath and thought back to how Ruoshui and Kong Yao were not in Gantian.

If this fellow grabbed her to mess around every day, she couldn’t take it alone.

The ability of the Sky Fox could make one feel so much desire that they wanted to die. She couldn’t stop even if she wanted, instead, she would ask for more until she was devoid of energy and couldn’t continue.

Her expression became solemn and she apologized, “I remembered that after I return I have pills to refine. I can only accompany you a few days later.”

He then glanced at Chuxue, a smile flashed across, “If Husband feels lonely, why not take Xue’er? You can also shut up the mouths of our commoners.”

“Eh?” Chuxue exclaimed. She got shot even when she laid there and did nothing. Even if she was slow she knew what Xuanyuan Yiren was referring to. She quickly shook her head frantically and her face turned red.

Zong Shou scoffed coldly. In his heart, he had made up his mind that once he returned to the palace, he would punish her. Pill refining as an excuse was useless this time.

Just at this moment, he sensed something and he looked outside.

A dozen scholarly dressed people suddenly blocked in front of the group, right in the middle of the streets.

Around them were thousands of bamboo scrolls and rotten vegetables as they threw them all over.

“Zong Shou, you violent Ruler, enemy of the Confucians, you deserve to die!”

“Evil demon outer path, Monster Race Ruler, how can you rule a nation!”

“Didn’t you say you want to burn the books and wipe out Confucianism? If you have the ability, kill us!”

“We will kill you ignorant Ruler!”

“Central Continent Great Shang is about to attack you, how long will you last? Gantian will die!”

“This person is an evil demon! Anyone in the world can kill him and anyone can replace him!”

“Zong Weiran was a good Ruler, to have such a son, he would hate you in h.e.l.l!”

They scolded out, not caring to mince their words. However, the cheers around suppressed them. Before those vegetables and bamboo scrolls even got 1,000 feet close, the guards around smashed them into pieces.

The dozen Confucians were forcefully taken down and pulled away from the streets.

After this small situation, everything else was pretty calm.

Zong Shou sat quietly without saying a word. The killing intent in his eyes became even colder and suppressive.

This time he was truly furious. A flame silently rose up and burned in his chest.

“Everyone who joins in, lock them up in the Ministry of Justice. Don’t punish them and don’t make things tough for them. We will deal with them in a month!”

He really wanted to behead them right here, but he knew that if he did that, those Confucians would have more things to say.

At that time, Zong Shou would truly be a violent Ruler. Those Confucians, who blocked him and scolded him, would be called heroes.

Zong Shou was definitely not a magnanimous person but since he wanted these people to die, he would kill them righteously after their reputations collapsed.

Deserve to die? Monster Race Ruler? He had to admit that those people really angered him.

Zong Gang was one of the five Army Inspectors and held the Blood Cloud Cavalry and all the guards. He was at the side of the carriage on his horse.

After he heard this, he was stunned and slightly surprised. Then, he galloped away viciously to spread Zong Shou’s orders.

Renbo gave a satisfied smile when he heard that. Ruler had really grown up.

He didn’t feel happy nor sad about material items, he was also more and more shrewd. He kept calm and didn’t let anger get to his head, making the best possible choice.

They went around Gantian Mountain for a full round and a full eight hours later, the carriage entered Gantian Mountain under the protection of the 20,000 Blood Cloud Cavalry.

Zong Shou returned to Hanyan Palace, he temporarily suppressed his desires and summoned all the officials to the hall.

However, the first topic they discussed wasn’t a huge country matter but to take Ruoshui as his concubine.

Who said that he only had one queen and one concubine?

The officials didn’t have any objections and were instead glad to see it happen. Zong Weiran’s bloodline had been just a lone bloodline since five generations ago.

If any accidents occurred, then it would be tough for them to even find anyone to take over.

After all, the relatives five generations away were too far.

Ruler had finally grown smart and was finally willing to spread the leaves. That was the best possible decision.

However, taking in a concubine was a joyous thing, but why did Ruler seemed like he was filled with huge hate and anger?

Thinking about it, Zong Shou wasn’t affected much by those people who blocked his path and scolded him, causing the people in the hall to heave a sigh of relief.

The second matter of the meeting was him preparing a decree to prohibit people of Great Gan for discussing about the Ruler.

Renbo was slightly surprised and thought to himself,

is Ruler actually angered by those Confucians?

However, there was no need to think much about this and he knew that he had to firmly oppose.

“We can’t! Since ancient times, preventing people from speaking has been catastrophic! We can only influence them and not shut them up…”

The Generals around didn’t care but the few civil servants all objected in unison.

Xu Shu was already the right secretary of the Meeting Hall, the deputy head of it, and he bowed, “Ruler had mentioned that Great Gan can’t punish people for speaking, so how can we go against it? However, if Ruler is annoyed with those Confucians, there is no need to do this. Great Gan has laws, stopping the royal carriage, trying to a.s.sa.s.sinate, insulting the Ruler, those are all punishable offenses!”

Zong Shou was speechless and he couldn’t tell these people that what he was annoyed with was people talking about how many concubines he had and how “useless” he was?

The few civil servants were firm and he also lacked reasoning on his side. After insisting on it for a while, he could only choose to shelve it helplessly.

The third matter was regarding Zhu Zi making him the Enemy of the Confucians.

“Zhu Zi really is vicious, announcing to the entire world to try to sow chaos in Great Gan such that our va.s.sal states would turn against us. He wants to replace us.”

Although Great Gan unified Donglin, many tails were left. Most city lords chose to self-rule and were just subjects under him.

Luckily, over these few years, there were many cities and towns that chose to be directly ruled under Great Gan.

The private troops owned by those cities were reduced by more than half by Qiu Wei.

Even if they wanted to riot, they wouldn’t have the ability to do so now.

They needed a period of time to expand their armies even if they wanted to.

“There is no need to bother about the city lords in Donglin. What we worry about are the Demon Faction sects. Those Demon Sect disciples are causing problems all around. Within this half day, people of four sects appeared around, using poison to kill around 100 people. If we can’t restrict them, then people will definitely be terrified!”

Hu Qianqiu was worried, there were 20 children from his Tiger Race who died because of this Demon Sect. Although their Race had a large population, he still felt heart pained because of that.

The Tiger Race children didn’t die on the battlefield but to the schemes of the Demon Sect.

Zong Shou’s brow became serious as he knew that the chaos sowed by the Demon Sect wasn’t something the few sects under Great Gan and the few hired helpers could suppress.

“I will inform Sword Sect and Common People’s Path to help us.”

He didn’t hesitate. This was one of the conditions of allowing both of them to open colleges and dojos in the outer region. After the matter, he wouldn’t need to feel that he owed them anything. This was also time for them to help him out.

“Only then would Donglin and Huizhou be stabilized. However, South Wind Cloud Continent was only calmed down not long ago. After this storm, there will probably be more chaos and we need to send troops to suppress it.”

Qiu Wei was the one who spoke. He was really calm and had the aura of a huge general.

“We need at least 300,000 Grade Three troops to ensure stability. However, they can at most hold on for three months!”

Zong Shou’s expression became serious. 300,000 Grade Three troops wasn’t a small power.

At this moment, naturally, it couldn’t be considered much in the Cloud World but before the Spiritual Wave it was enough to sweep an entire cloud continent.

“Apart from this, the crucial point of this battle is the navy. Can Ruler send some s.p.a.ces.h.i.+ps back? Gulie wouldn’t be able to do so alone!”

Great Gan had thin foundations in the Central Cloud Continent.

All the resources and grain had to be sent over by Clouds.h.i.+ps from Huizhou.

It seemed problematic but their resources were transported faster than Great Shang. Great Gan was interconnected and Cloud Crossing Carriages could travel thousands of miles in a day. Clouds.h.i.+ps were even quicker.

However, the basis of all of this was built on the navy.