Ancestor Above

Chapter 368

368 There’s meat to eat by following the Lu family

The progress of the matter was much smoother than Lu Qingxiang had expected.

The person who had appeared was the leader of the demon race in divine Deer Forest. He was the demon cultivator who was at the late initial enlightenment stage, elder Lu.

He had brought over a hundred demon tribes to this place and established a connection with the three demon tribes. He was accompanied by a few reliable initial enlightenment cultivators from the Lu clan and the Qingfeng sect.

The method in between was a combination of kindness and severity.

Not many people had died. The three demon tribes quickly realized that this matter was not something they could handle by simply standing their ground. And so, the whole thing was settled.

To be honest, in such a turbulent environment, after leaving their hometown and moving east for such a long distance, the life of these three demon tribes was not very good.

Elder Lu could empathize with her.

Under his coordination, another batch of resources was transported in from the Feiyun state.

Of course, they were not given for free. These resources were given to the three demon tribes in the name of remuneration. He would first give them a portion of the remuneration for excavating the spirit stone mine in the future so that they could be at ease first. At the same time, he could also bring up the schedule of excavating the mine vein as soon as possible.

The arrival of this batch of supplies made the demon tribes even more loyal. When the days were good, there would always be more hope for outsiders.

Of course, the Lu family would not hand over the matter of the spiritual stone mine to the demons.

The demon race team from divine Deer Forest would be stationed here for a long time as a supervisor. In addition, the Lu clan would also have a small elite team of cultivators here.

At the same time, the entire area was re-divided, and the nearest human settlement was used as the governing area, and a new Rocky County was built. The entire Stone Mountain County was under strict martial law. Within the designated area, no human or demon were allowed to enter without permission.

There had to be a reason for this. Otherwise, it would be equivalent to telling the world that there was a special secret buried here.

The excuse used here was to settle the demon race refugees from the West.

The Lu clan had already announced a new policy against demons. In the past, it was banishment and destruction, but now it had changed to a limited acceptance. The demons that came from the West could be accepted by the divine deer County, be it individually or as a group. Shenlu County had also established a Department in the name of the government to be in charge of demon Affairs. It was called the demon People Department.

These monsters could choose their own living area and territory in the three counties, including Stone Mountain County. They could settle down and would not be attacked or chased away by human cultivators.

However, there were conditions.

The demon People Department would issue a waist token with the word ‘Yan’ engraved on it to every demon who was qualified to live in the three counties, representing that they had become a citizen of Great Yan. They had to pay taxes, work, and accept all kinds of jobs and tasks assigned by the officials of Shenlu Prefecture. They had to live according to the laws of Great Yan.

To a certain extent, the demon race was very similar to humans. Among them, not all of them were successful cultivators. There were also many ordinary ‘people’ who had not even reached the refinement stage.

However, demons had special physiques. Even if they did not cultivate successfully, they would still have some special abilities. Ordinary humans would not be a match for them even if they picked up weapons. Their fertility rate was relatively much lower than that of humans, but it was relatively easier for them to cultivate. Moreover, the cultivation of demon cultivators was different from that of humans who relied on spiritual roots. They placed more emphasis on bloodline and physical body.

Of course, there were also a large number of demons who were animals and plants. After absorbing spiritual Qi and the essence of heaven and earth for many years, they achieved success. This was another matter.

In short, demons and humans were ultimately different races.

However, as long as they had intelligence and could communicate, the two could coexist. Just like in the country of Liang, humans and demons had been living together for thousands of years. It was not surprising to see a fox demon opening a Tavern in a town.

There was no such experience in the country of Yan. The Lu family had accumulated a little experience in this area from the divine Deer Forest, but it was not very rich. But all in all, this could be done bit by bit.

Some of the demon tribes in the three districts were allocated to some resource points. Lu Qing had found these resources through the ‘complete exploration’ exchange tab. They were responsible for the management and development of those resource points. After paying taxes, they would use the remaining production to do business with human towns and Exchange for various other rich products.

There were some problems with this model. For example, some demons were difficult to discipline by nature. They had clearly agreed to it before, but in the end, they ignored the agreement and left their clan’s land without permission, even attacking humans. There had been cases of resistance to paying taxes, or directly robbing human merchant caravans during the exchange of goods.

But first, it was less frequent. Secondly, the scattered and leaderless demons would often be suppressed after such an incident happened.

Furthermore, when the Shenlu county government suppressed the demons, they did not just resort to using force and violence to settle things. Usually, violence was accompanied by the corresponding education work.

This was the so-called carrot and stick approach.

While the three counties were in full swing with the transformation of the monster race, the matter of the three monster races in Stone Mountain County excavating the spirit stone mines was hidden in this tide. They were just like the other demon race settlements that had been incorporated by the Lu family. The only difference was that the resources they had developed were more special, and the surrounding areas were further sealed off. But at the same time, they would be more obedient than other demon tribes.

Firstly, the Lu family would reward them more. On the other hand, there were several high-level human cultivators and elite teams of cultivators stationed in the spirit stone mine.

These cultivators were either direct descendants of the Lu clan or people with very high loyalty. In addition, they were powerful and had the ability to suppress problems independently without any help if something bad happened.

A year later, the spiritual stone mine would have produced some spiritual stones. By the third year, the fourth-grade spirit stone mine had produced 300000 spirit stones a year.

At the same time, under Lu Qing’s instructions and the Lu clan’s leadership, the demon clan’s reorganization also allowed the development of the entire divine deer County to progress faster than expected. Coupled with the large number of resource points that Lu Qing had discovered, the speed at which the divine deer County flourished was faster than many people had imagined.

In the past, the development of the divine deer County had mainly relied on the migration of people from the familiar lands.

The migrants here were mainly ordinary people.

However, it wasn’t easy to gain a firm foothold in a wilderness like the divine deer County just by relying on ordinary people. Furthermore, it was impossible for the government to send a lot of cultivators all at once. After all, whether it was the Lu clan, the Qingfeng sect, or even the Imperial court, the scope was big, the interest chain was many, and it was complicated. All of these required manpower, and it was difficult to send a particularly large number of people at once.

Furthermore, to most cultivators, being stationed in this sort of ‘barbaric’ place for a long period of time was definitely a chore. Even if there were more rewards and rewards, the number of people willing to come would actually be limited.

If even the cultivators who had been ordered to come were like this, it was even more difficult to expect ordinary itinerant cultivators or local forces to be willing to come to the North barren forest.

Although, to a certain extent, the Lu family had made it seem like they were going to develop the Western Region, there were still many people who doubted whether this could be done. Even if there were people who believed that this matter could be accomplished in the future and that the divine deer County would become prosperous, it would probably be a matter that would happen many years later.

Although there were some people who wanted to be the first to eat the crab and came here first to be the first to explore, there were not enough of them. In most people’s minds,’I’m the one who planted the tree, and the next generation enjoys the shade’ was something that they were not very willing to do.

However, in the past few years, the speed of development of the divine deer County had exceeded many people’s expectations. After this place became prosperous at a speed that could be seen with the naked eye, there would indeed be more people and even some small powers who would feel that it was a very reliable thing to develop in the divine deer County.

For example, in the Feiyun state, many families had stood on the side of the sect leader when the Lu clan and the hai clan were fighting with the sect leader’s bloodline decades ago. In the end, they had chosen the wrong side.

The Lu family would not go as far as to take revenge on them after they gained power. They did not have any other thoughts. In fact, they could not wait to cling onto the Lu family’s thigh. However, the benefits of the Feiyun state are limited. You chose the wrong side back then. When the Lu family took the leading position, the corresponding benefits would naturally be distributed to the forces that were closer to them.

There was no need to deliberately suppress them. They would naturally feel that their days were not as comfortable as before, or that there was no room for further improvement.

And right now, the divine deer County was a very good space.

In addition, the Lu family had also issued an invitation to the development of the West in the entire Feiyun state.

If he listened to the Lu family, there would be meat to eat.

......

Strictly speaking, the Lu clan would benefit from the development of the spiritual stone mine and even the entire Shenlu County, not the Imperial court.

This was something that had to be clearly distinguished.

Although the Lu family was already the royal family of the Yan Kingdom, there was still a clear distinction between the two.

...

At least, in Lu Qing’s definition as the person in power behind the scenes, the country of Yan belonged to the Lu clan, and not the Lu clan belonged to the country of Yan.

The Shenlu County would pay a portion of the taxes to the Tang imperial court, but this amount was very small. It was the same as the standards of the Feiyun state and the Xue state. The Imperial court’s control over the Northern Territory was essentially obtained through the imperial family, but the Imperial court itself could not control the Northern Territory.

This was a backup plan.

What if, and I’m saying what if, things change in the future and the Lu clan steps down from the throne? then, at least the Northern Territory will still be his.

Of course, Lu Qing did not want to see that happen. It wasn’t easy for me to spit out something I’ve obtained.

However, even though that was what he said, if the Imperial court needed it, the Lu family, as the royal family, would definitely support it.

For example, the strengthening of centralized authority.

This was mainly reflected in Jin Zhou and Ji Zhou.

Lu Qing was dissatisfied with the way the Imperial court had been in the past. Based on his imagination and his knowledge from his last life, he felt that a proper dynasty should have a very deep control over the various parts of the country.

If Yunxiao sect could not handle it, then it was another matter. The Northern Territory was his own independent kingdom. If he didn’t want to do it, he wouldn’t say anything. Ji Zhou and Jin Zhou were still mountain peaks, so this matter could not be tolerated.

The Lu clan and Yunxiao sect could set fires, but the small sects and clans in Ji Prefecture and Jin Prefecture were not even allowed to light up their lamps. This was what Lu Qing meant.

...

In order to achieve centralized authority, one naturally needed to have the confidence of a centralized authority.

The Northern Territory, as the base of the Lu royal family, could provide a lot of pressure to the South. The other source of confidence was naturally the central Imperial Army of Yan city.

Lu chaoxi had been setting up the Imperial Army for a long time.

In these past few years, even when their finances had been particularly tight, they had never stopped investing in the Imperial Army. Later on, the court’s finances became more abundant. Coupled with the increased support the Lu clan had given the court recently, the construction of the Imperial Army accelerated even more.

By now, Great Yan’s Imperial Army had been restored to the size of thirty thousand men, which was almost the same as before.

Of course, to be able to rise so quickly, on one hand, it was because he had invested a lot. On the other hand, it was because he had already built up his Foundation in the past. After all, he could not be considered to have started from zero.

But in truth, while they had recovered in numbers, they were still lacking in quality when compared to the Imperial Army at its peak. This was mainly reflected in the fact that the average strength of the Imperial Army cultivators was not up to the standard of the past.

In the future, the investment in the Imperial Army might have to gradually change from restoring the quantity to improving the quality. This meant that the internal personnel training system had to be better built. The resources invested in it had to be more than before.

But fortunately, this piece had its own support.

The Imperial court also had its own Golden Lotus plantation, and it was of a much larger scale than the Lu clan’s. Originally, these Foundation establishment pills concocted from golden lotuses were supplied by the Imperial court to the various forces under it and the Imperial court itself.

Under Lu chaoxi’s leadership, the Imperial Army was the main force.

In addition, there was another big source, which was the large number of level three white ghouls that were killed in the White ghouls ‘journey to the South. They had also provided a lot of soul beads. Three of these soul beads could be used to refine a cauldron of foundation building pills with a secret technique.

A portion of these foundation building pills were also given to the Imperial Army of Yan city.

The attraction of the foundation building elixir to low-level cultivators need not be described. This would also help the Imperial Army attract more low-level cultivators with potential to join them.

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