If you want to read 20 Chapters ahead and more, be sure to check out my P-Tang12!!!
______________________________
(A/N: Don't forget to give those power stones to Skyrim everyone!)
...
He was no longer dressed in comfortable lounging silks. He wore the full, breathtaking regalia of the Emperor of the Hengyuan Dynasty, a massive, trailing robe of the deepest, richest black silk, intricately embroidered with twelve golden dragons that seemed to writhe and shift as he moved. A crown of hanging jade beads obscured his eyes, adding to his divine, untouchable aura.
Hundreds of knees struck the polished jade floor in perfect, terrifying unison.
"Long live His Imperial Majesty! Ten thousand years! Ten thousand years! Ten thousand years!"
The thunderous, unified greeting delivered by the kneeling officials shook the very dust from the rafters. It was a sound of absolute, unquestioning submission.
Lie Fan turned, his heavy robes swirling around his boots, and took his seat upon the massive golden dragon throne. He raised a single hand, his jade rings catching the light, and the hall instantly fell dead silent once more. The Imperial Court Meeting was officially opened.
Sitting on his throne, projecting an aura of supreme, unyielding authority, he looked out over his kneeling empire. They were eager. They were hungry. The military men were practically vibrating with the anticipation of receiving their war spoils, while the civil ministers were anxious to see how the new northern territories would be divided.
But Lie Fan was a master of pacing and control. He knew that rewarding the sword before checking the shield was the hallmark of a foolish king.
He announced that he would like to carefully hear the provincial reports and civilian petitions first.
"The blood of our enemies has watered the earth, and the glory of our generals is undeniable," Lie Fan's voice boomed, clear and resonant across the vast hall. "But a dynasty is not built on victory alone, it is sustained by the prosperity of its common people. Before we distribute the spoils of war, we must ensure the empire's foundation is completely stable. Step forward, Ministers of the Realm, and speak of the harvest, the taxes, and the grievances of the provinces."
For the next several hours, the court was immersed in the tedious, vital machinery of governance. Magistrates from the southern provinces reported on the success of the new irrigation canals. Tax officials from the central plains detailed the surplus of the autumn grain harvest.
Petitions regarding minor border disputes between regional merchants, the funding for new steam forge academies, and the logistical maintenance of the vast wagonway network were all brought forward, meticulously analyzed by Lie Fan and his top advisors, and decisively resolved.
Only after the foundational health of the empire was thoroughly verified, and Lie Fan was completely satisfied that the realm was not suffering in the shadow of his military conquests, did the atmosphere in the hall shift.
"The foundation is strong," Lie Fan finally declared, leaning forward on his throne. "Now, let us speak of the men who ensured that foundation will never be shaken again."
Then, the highly anticipated rewards, military promotions, and noble titles were grandly granted to the war heroes.
It was a ceremony of staggering, unprecedented generosity.
Sima Yi stood to the side of the dais, unrolling a massive scroll and reading off the names of the living legends.
Zhang Liao, Zhao Yun, Ma Chao, and many of the generals involved in the war that was present were called forward, kneeling at the base of the stairs, and those that aren't present are still called out. Lie Fan officially elevated their ranks, granting them an increase in their taxable households in their estate and are aunder their control, chests overflowing with pure gold bullion and silver bullion, bolts of the finest imperial silk, and also high quality weapons from the Imperial Treasury.
Commanders who had held the line against the Fuyu heavy infantry were promoted to full Generals of the Empire.
Logistics officers who had kept the supply wagons moving through the blizzards were granted lucrative, lifetime tax exemptions and massive tracts of fertile farmland.
Even the common infantrymen were not forgotten, standard soldiers were given massive bonuses of silver that would elevate their families out of poverty for three generations.
The hall was filled with the sounds of weeping gratitude, the clanking of newly awarded jade medallions, and the fierce, fanatical pledges of eternal loyalty from the men who had just been made unimaginably wealthy by their Emperor's hand.
After all of that lengthy, joyous bureaucratic and rewarding process was finally done, the court expected the meeting to draw to a triumphant close. The generals were satisfied, the ministers were content, and the empire was secure.
But Lie Fan was not finished. He had saved the last world altering mandate for the very end.
The Emperor slowly stood up from the golden throne. The movement immediately silenced the quiet murmurs of celebration that had been rippling through the ranks. He stepped down to the first tier of the dais, looking out over the hundreds of the most powerful men in the world.
He then announced a sweeping, radical new national policy that would fundamentally rewrite the demographic reality of the continent.
"We have conquered the vast, freezing expanse of the north," Lie Fan began, his voice echoing with a cold, visionary pragmatism. "We have captured three hundred thousand of their people, and we have garrisoned two hundred thousand of our own soldiers along the new borders. But a garrison is a military occupation, not a civilization."
He looked directly at the civil ministers, ensuring they grasped the absolute gravity of his next words.
"Those vast, newly conquered Northern lands will desperately need Han people to be heavily populated there to secure the borders forever," Lie Fan declared. "If we do not fill the empty steppes with our own blood, our own culture, and our own plows, the ghosts of the nomads will eventually rise from the snow to reclaim it. We cannot hold a continent with soldiers alone, we must hold it with families."
The court listened in rapt, breathless silence as the sheer scale of his ambition was laid bare.
And so, he proclaimed, his voice rising in volume and absolute authority.
"There are those within our borders who still suffer," Lie Fan stated, his tone carrying a populist fury that deeply resonated with the younger magistrates. "Despite our wealth, there are still families living in below average, impoverished conditions across the entire mainland. There are tenant farmers breaking their backs on land they will never own. There are second and third sons in the overcrowded southern cities who have no prospects and no future. I will not allow my citizens to starve in the shadows of my golden palaces."
He raised his hand, pointing toward the northern horizon beyond the palace walls.
"They are to be systematically sent there," Lie Fan commanded. "We will initiate the greatest migration in the history of our land."
The logistical specifics he laid out next were staggering in their generosity and their calculated genius. He knew he could not simply force people at sword point to march into a frozen wasteland, he had to make the wasteland the most attractive opportunity in the world.
"This will not be an exile, it will be an improvement," Lie Fan detailed, his eyes flashing with brilliant, architectural fire. "With massive government subsidies pulled directly from the imperial treasury, we will fund their travel. They will be given vast, unconditional land grants, more acreage than their ancestors could have dreamed of owning in a dozen lifetimes. We will provide them with seed grain, steam forged iron plows, and winter livestock."
He looked toward his heavily armored generals. "And they will live under absolute military protection. Our citadels will guard their new towns. The pacified nomadic captives will be integrated into their workforce, helping them to tame the land."
The Emperor took a deep breath, looking out over his silent, completely awe struck court.
"These struggling citizens will be given the unprecedented, life altering opportunity to start a brand new, prosperous, and happy life in the north," Lie Fan concluded, his voice ringing with the finality of destiny. "They will build cities where there were once only tents. They will plant crops where there was only wild grass. They will intermarry, they will trade, and they will thrive. And by doing so, they will forge an unbreakable chain of civilization, forever binding the steppes to the Hengyuan Dynasty."
The hall remained absolutely silent for five long seconds as the officials processed the sheer, world shaking magnitude of the edict. He was simultaneously solving the empire's internal poverty crisis and permanently securing the most hostile border in the known world, using the poor as the ultimate, unyielding mortar to build his eternal empire.
And then, as one, the entire court fell to their knees once again, pressing their foreheads against the jade floor, entirely overwhelmed by the divine, terrifying brilliance of their sovereign. "The Emperor's wisdom knows no bounds! Long live the Hengyuan Dynasty! Ten thousand years!"
After that edict was announced, shaking the very foundations of how the empire would handle its poorest citizens and its most hostile borders, the grand session of the Imperial Court was officially ended.
The heavy, resonant strike of the ceremonial bronze bell echoed through the massive hall, signaling the conclusion of a day that would be written into the annals of history for a thousand years.
The hundreds of civil and military officials, rose slowly from their knees. As they began to file out of the grand hall, their hushed, excited whispers filled the corridors, a buzzing hive of ambition and administrative panic as they realized the sheer volume of work that lay ahead of them.
But for the Emperor, the work of the day was not yet entirely finished. While the masses of the court dispersed to celebrate their newly acquired lands and titles, Lie Fan remained standing on the golden dais, his dark eyes scanning the departing crowd. With a subtle, deliberate gesture of his gauntleted hand, he specifically called for his top administrative pillars to remain behind.
He singled out Chancellor Jia Xu, the brilliant Minister of Personnel Zhuge Liang, and the dignified Minister of Rites Lu Su, ordering them to meet him privately at his personal imperial study.
Leaving the cavernous, echoing expanse of the main hall, Lie Fan then headed there directly alongside the three men. They walked in a tight, quiet formation through the heavily guarded, labyrinthine corridors of the inner palace.
The transition from the public theater of absolute imperial power to the secluded, quiet corridors of the inner sanctum was jarring. Here, there were no roaring crowds or weeping sycophants, only the silent, unblinking presence of the Yellow Ghost Bodyguards standing at perfect attention at every corner.
Once inside the quiet, incense filled study, the heavy wooden doors were firmly shut and barred by the guards outside, entirely sealing them away from the prying eyes and straining ears of the court.
The imperial study was a sanctuary of profound intellect and quiet power. The walls were lined from floor to ceiling with thousands of bamboo scrolls, bound silk ledgers, and intricate topographical maps of the known world. A massive bronze brazier in the corner radiated a comfortable heat, burning premium, aged sandalwood that filled the room with a thick, calming fragrance designed to focus the mind.
Lie Fan let out a long, slow breath, finally allowing the rigid, untouchable posture of the Black Dragon to soften just a fraction. He unclasped the heavy, ceremonial golden dragon belt that bound his waist, placing it on a side table, and sat down at the head of a polished ebony table. He gestured for the three brilliant ministers to take their seats opposite him.
In this room, there was no need for the theatrical bowing and the roaring chants of ten thousand years. Here, they were not just subjects kneeling before a god, they were the architects of reality, talking intimately about the unvarnished mechanics of the empire.
Lie Fan poured a cup of warm tea for himself, his eyes fixed on the three men, before he smoothly transitioned the conversation toward a highly sensitive internal matter that had been quietly gnawing at his mind throughout the entire northern campaign.
He leaned forward, his elbows resting on the dark wood of the table, and asked for the realistic, unvarnished results of their long, ongoing efforts in persuading and convincing Cao Cao's former top advisors.
These were not ordinary prisoners of war. These were the men who had built Cao Cao's power base from the ground up, the intellects that had nearly thwarted Lie Fan's rise to absolute supremacy on multiple occasions.
He specifically named the brilliant minds of Xun Yu, Xi Zhicai, Guo Jia, Cheng Yu, Jia Kui, Tian Feng, and Xu You. It was a roster of peerless, generational genius, men whose mastery of logistics, statecraft, psychological warfare, and domestic administration.
Lie Fan pressed his ministers, his gaze piercing through the drifting smoke of the sandalwood incense. He wanted to know on whether there has been any actual, tangible progress on persuading these captive geniuses to agree to finally pledge their allegiance to the Hengyuan Dynasty.
"I have given them time," Lie Fan said, his voice quiet but carrying a heavy, undeniable weight. "I have given them isolation to grieve, and I have given them the luxury of quiet contemplation. More importantly, I have given them the undeniable proof of reality. Their former lord, Cao Cao, is dead, his ambition is buried, and the banners of Wei have been burned to ash. The world has moved on. So, tell me... have their minds moved on as well?"
Hearing the question, the atmosphere in the study immediately grew heavy. The three ministers, men who were accustomed to solving the most complex, impossible problems the empire could throw at them, exchanged tired, deeply frustrated glances.
Zhuge Liang, the young prodigy whose silver tongue could usually talk a starving wolf out of a fresh kill, slowly closed his white crane feather fan and set it on the table. Jia Xu, a man who understood the darkest, most pragmatic corners of human psychology better than anyone alive, rubbed the bridge of his nose. And Lu Su, the master of diplomatic grace, simply let out a long, weary breath.
They slowly shook their heads in deep, profound dismay.
"There's not much progress at all, Your Majesty," Lu Su was the first to speak, his voice carrying the bitter tone of a diplomat who had exhausted every single avenue of reason.
"We have visited them repeatedly over the past months. We have brought them the finest wines, the most ancient texts to read, and we have laid out the undeniable reality of the world outside their walls. We have shown them the ledgers of your prosperity, proving that the common people thrive under your rule. But it is like talking to stone."
Zhuge Liang nodded, his brilliant eyes reflecting a rare, genuine frustration. "They are men of immense intellect, Your Majesty, but that intellect has become a fortress that they refuse to unlock. I have sat across the Go board with Guo Jia and Xi Zhicai for hours on end, attempting to weave the logic of their surrender into the conversation. They will gladly discuss philosophy, they will analyze the poetry of the ancients, and they will even playfully critique our tax policies. But the moment the conversation turns toward them serving the Hengyuan Dynasty, the board goes cold."
______________________________
Name: Lie Fan
Title: Founding Emperor Of Hengyuan Dynasty
Age: 36 (203 AD)
Level: 16
Next Level: 462,000
Renown: 2325
Cultivation: Yin Yang Separation (level 11)
SP: 1,121,700
ATTRIBUTE POINTS
STR: 1,010 (+20)
VIT: 659 (+20)
AGI: 653 (+10)
INT: 691
CHR: 98
WIS: 569
WILL: 436
ATR Points: 0