Chen Ming spent some time explaining in detail to Qian Renxue what work-for-relief meant, the various procedures that needed attention during its implementation, and the system of mutual supervision. He even wrote down the entire process and structure clearly on paper.
However, Qian Renxue's immediate reply nearly caused Chen Ming to choke:
"If, during this process, I arrange for all the key positions to be filled by my own people, then after I finish handling these matters and everything gets on the right track, can I continue promoting the people in each position to even higher posts?"
From the perspective of the crown prince of a feudal dynasty, this was a very normal thought. The problem was that Chen Ming knew that beneath Xue Qinghe's skin was actually Qian Renxue, the young mistress of Spirit Hall.
Her first thought was not about what this could do for the people, nor to what extent the present situation could be relieved. Instead, she was directly thinking about how to insert her own people and then control this part.
When an orange grows south of the Huai River, it is an orange; when it grows north of the Huai River, it becomes a trifoliate orange. Even as the holder of the Angel Martial Soul, after spending a long time in the Heaven Dou Empire, she had ultimately become completely like a member of the imperial nobility.
In the current Qian Renxue, Chen Ming could not see the bearing that a successor of the Angel God ought to possess.
It was not that he could say he hated her that much. After all, Qian Renxue had indeed not done anything inhumane at present. Even if she had some thoughts of fighting for power and profit, that was still within reason.
But it still left Chen Ming somewhat disappointed. After all, his impression of Qian Daoliu was truly rather good. Although Qian Daoliu's personality was indeed somewhat soft, he truly did fit all the standards of a benevolent elder.
As for Qian Renxue's current performance, although she could not be called vermin, she could only be described as a normal feudal creature. Not good enough, not bad enough; not outstanding enough, not special enough.
According to the original story, Qian Daoliu's talent back then had been sufficient. He merely lacked a certain sharpness, and at the crucial moment, had no way to obtain the Nine Trials, so he could only settle for the position of Grand Worship.
Bo Saixi's talent was insufficient. Even if she possessed enough temperament, she was still completely incapable of bearing the Nine Trials. Moreover, her own temperament also had to be questioned.
Tang Chen had the finest talent and temperament. Even without coming into contact with a divine trial, he himself had the ability to gather faith and become a god. The problem was that his luck just so happened to be the worst, making him the most pathetic one in the latter half of his life among the three great Limit Douluo.
And the temperaments of the successors of the three great Limit Douluo were also different from theirs. From a certain perspective, the one whose temperament best matched her god position was instead Bibi Dong, who was a lunatic.
...
With the help of Chen Ming's guidance manual, Qian Renxue, in her identity as Crown Prince Xue Qinghe, began mobilizing the remaining military commanders among the surrounding soldiers. Then, taking the Imperial Guard she had brought with her as the core, she started organizing matters on all fronts and registering households, laying a foundation for the work-for-relief that would follow.
With Qian Renxue's ability, even with the support of her status and the imperial family's Imperial Guard, completing such a matter would still take at least half a month. But Chen Ming felt that Qian Renxue's efficiency was truly too slow, so he simply stepped forward directly. After receiving Qian Renxue's approval, he then began directly deploying troops and assigning generals, arranging tasks in every aspect.
No one dared question Chen Ming's authority, because at present, Chen Ming stood beside Qian Renxue, representing the dignity of the Heaven Dou imperial family. This alone was enough to mobilize a large amount of manpower and resources.
And if anyone dared to further question Chen Ming's identity, then upon learning who he truly was, they would only become even more fearful.
Because from a certain perspective, Chen Ming's current status was even more noble than that of an imperial crown prince like Qian Renxue.
The corrupt nobles of the Heaven Dou Empire would dare to defy imperial orders when sufficient profit was involved, because the imperial family still operated within the rules of their "game," and they were skilled at playing it.
But they did not dare offend Chen Ming. Because Chen Ming did not play any such game with them at all, while all of them had no choice but to beg him for assistance.
In just a few days, Chen Ming had already finished laying out the general framework.
What exceeded Chen Ming's expectations was that, after the statistics were compiled, it was discovered that although most of the disaster victims had indeed suffered quite severely, a significant number of them had fled all the way from the front lines where the Spirit Beast tide had erupted.
It seemed that most of the Spirit Beasts were being restrained by some sort of existence. They were more focused on driving humans away and destroying infrastructure, while the priority of directly destroying human bodies was comparatively lower.
There were even more humans who had encountered high-level Spirit Beasts and survived than humans who had encountered low-level Spirit Beasts and managed to survive.
This clearly meant that the leaders of the Spirit Beasts seemed to have firm intentions of their own, possessing their own thoughts and using specialized methods specifically targeting humans.
The advantage was that the disaster-stricken area would be smaller, and the victims would be relatively easier to settle. Conversely, the disadvantage was that the Spirit Beasts had long since prepared for humanity's counterattack. Perhaps they had already laid some sort of scheme or ambush specifically aimed at the humans who would arrive.
Powerful Spirit Masters could, of course, forcibly open up a piece of territory for themselves within the northeastern corner and protect their own domain. But how many such powerful Spirit Masters were there? And could such powerful Spirit Masters always protect their subjects, always remain within their own territories? The answer was impossible.
Powerful Spirit Masters were limited in number and could only drive away the Spirit Beasts here temporarily. Once things calmed down for the time being, they would immediately need to be transferred elsewhere—especially to guard against attacks from the Star Luo Empire.
Those truly capable of developing the land were still the large number of low-level Spirit Masters and countless ordinary civilians. It was by relying on the numbers of these people that the land could be tamed little by little.
And the Spirit Beasts seemed to be targeting precisely these lower-level humans, deliberately driving them away and forcing humanity to be unable to truly recover the northeastern corner, then resume the planting, harvesting, and development of various resources.
Chen Ming and Qian Renxue could only lead three hundred Heaven Dou Empire soldiers with the strength of Spirit Masters to advance. Together with the accompanying experts, they threaded through the shattered mountain paths and rushed all the way toward the depths.
Under their day-and-night march, the group did not spend much time before directly arriving at the nearest gathering point.
It had originally been a broad and fertile plain, which had formed into a prosperous city after several hundred years of human development.
It had been both a major commercial distribution hub, sending all kinds of resources from the northeastern corner into the heartland of the Heaven Dou Empire, and also the political core the Heaven Dou Empire used to control the northeastern corner as a whole. Logically speaking, it should have been a place extremely difficult for Spirit Beasts to breach and completely destroy.
But after the group arrived here, what appeared before them was not a plain or a human city, but an extremely complex, chaotic terrain.
...
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