Chapter 405: Chapter 213: Deploying Troops for the Northern Expedition_3
Translator: 549690339
Now it is already August, the beginning of autumn, and it has been three months since the establishment of Nanhai Country.
Such a long time may only be a short moment for a newly established country, not even enough to sort out its internal affairs.
But for a battle involving hundreds of thousands of people, it is already a considerable length of time.
Some quickly concluded battles have even finished within the three months’ time.
Therefore, even though Nanhai Country is still in a mess, the messengers from the court have been coming in waves every few days, and have not stopped since the founding of Nanhai.
Listening to these reports, Yan Wangqiu said with a hint of premonition: “Haven’t I already said it? Let your response to the court be that Nanhai Country has just been established, and we have not even properly arranged the appointments of our government officials.
Even our troops are still only from the original local county soldiers.
Together they barely exceed ten thousand; how can I gather a hundred thousand troops for them?”
The official below said: “I have said this, but the court’s messenger said that the country of Changsha, which was established later than ours by two months, has already gathered a hundred thousand soldiers and has even led the troops northward across the river to fight against the Zhou people.
If Changsha can do it, why can’t we?
Hence, the court’s messenger insisted that we are deliberately delaying and refusing to send troops.
He even threatened that if our country does not send troops, it would be a breach of promise.
By that time, the imperial edict would not favor us and Nanhai Country, which has already been sealed, would be taken back.
He advises our country to think thrice.”
“How dare he!”
Yan Wangqiu was furious upon hearing this, but after his anger subsided, he fell into despondency.
Having established the country for three months, after the initial excitement, this old lord finally experienced the troubles of being a ruler with numerous tasks to handle.
The distribution of interests within the country, the appointment of local officials, the establishment of central institutions, and so many other issues seemed endless, leaving the former grandmaster exhausted and overwhelmed.
After the difficult task of filling the positions of the country’s officials and the local governments was completed, another major problem arose: how to run the national affairs and get the machinery of Nanhai Country up and running.
Although in this world, martial artists who want to cultivate to a profound realm cannot help but study, read Buddhist and Taoist scriptures, and cultivate themselves.
Considering cultural accomplishments alone, most second-rate martial artists are not bad, even comparable to ordinary scholars.
Furthermore, first-rate martial artists are not necessarily worse off compared to Juren and Jinshi (candidates who passed the imperial examinations).
However, cultural accomplishments are one thing, and handling government affairs is another.
The martial artists of Nanhai Sect originally studied to improve their martial arts for fighting and killing.
Their cultural accomplishments were mostly aimed at enhancing their state of mind.
But to govern the country, it’s far from enough to have only state of mind and culture.
How should local affairs be managed, how should taxes be levied on the people, how should cases of injustice be pronounced, how should water conservancy projects and official roads be repaired, how should local security be maintained, how should labor be reasonably recruited, how should the interests of the local grassroots be maintained, and how should they deal with the demands of the court officials?’
And so on, all these issues cannot be dealt with by just a cultured martial artist.
In fact, had the Nanhai Sect wholly taken over the officials left behind by the court, they could have efficiently established a new dynasty.
But the experienced officials left behind by the court were mostly kicked out by the Nanhai Sect.
As a result, the only shortcut for the Nanhai Sect was gone.
For these originally professional martial artists to successfully transform into qualified court officials would take an unknown number of years.
The various losses, wasted time, and costs during this period are unimaginable.
At this moment, Yan Wangqiu even regretted dismissing those local officials and envied his ally Lu Yuan.
He wondered how Lu Yuan was able to clear up domestic affairs within a short month and send troops northward.
Not to mention anything else, just this control over the domestic situation was far stronger than his Nanhai Country.
How good it would be if he could do the same.
But after his envy, he could only sigh and return to reality, looking at the official below and saying, “Never mind. Let the Military Department issue a document ordering the local governments and counties to start recruiting civilian workers and gather a hundred thousand soldiers.”
Let’s gather a hundred thousand soldiers first, and then let General Qian lead them northward to respond to the court.”
With the preliminary sorting of the court and local institutions, although there is still a lot of discordance,
They can barely manage to mobilize a hundred thousand civilian workers.
However, this way there should be no expectations on how much combat power these civilian workers will bring.”
The official below heard the words and breathed a sigh of relief, responding promptly: “The official obeys.”
Having finished discussing this matter, Yan Wangqiu wished to continue handling government affairs, but noticing that the official below had not left, he asked: “Is there anything else?”
The official hurriedly replied: “There is a letter from Changsha Country. When Changsha was first established, more than half of the domestic officials were short-staffed, and there were not enough scholars to fill the positions in the country.
Therefore, the King of Changsha sent an envoy to ask for our country’s permission to let our scholars go to Changsha for the imperial examination and fill the shortage of officials.
This matter has been urged several times by the other party.
Your Majesty was busy with government affairs before and did not reply.
Since they have been waiting for nearly a month now, it really can’t be dragged on any longer. Please make a decision, Your Majesty.”
“Oh, that matter…”
Upon hearing the reminder, Yan Wangqiu recalled the matter of Lu Yuan sending an envoy earlier and asking for support with scholars.
At that time, he was busy allocating interests to various parties within the country and could not spare any attention to this matter, so he did not reply.
Now that everything else is taken care of, it is indeed time to give him a reply.
Otherwise, it would not be proper for him to act as an ally.