novelsmap Chapter 1088 - 656: Illusionary Life (Part 2) – Unifying the Realm
Chapter 1088 - 656: Illusionary Life (Part 2) – Unifying the Realm
When Lu Lin learned of this, he was in the middle of handling official business.
He had never imagined that the emperor of a kingdom would leave this world in such a bizarre way.
With the help of a group of subordinates and officials, Lu Lin changed into clothes and came to serve as Sacrificer for the emperor, a child only one year old, whose teeth had not even fully grown in.
Lu Lin felt somewhat dazed.
In essence, he truly did not want to be doing the kind of work he was doing now.
Compared to his once leisurely life, even though he was now the highest authority of the Da Feng Dynasty, he was not particularly happy; he had even thought of just dropping everything, but the scenes he had witnessed near the Northland in the past made it impossible for Lu Lin to put down the work in his hands.
Whenever he closed his eyes, he saw children dying of hunger, young and strong men dying in fights, women with numb eyes and disheveled hair, and elders in despair.
This was not the kind of country he wanted, and he could not bring himself to live his days in peace in such an environment.
"We request Prince Qi to perform the Fengshan ceremony."
He did not know who suddenly knelt in front of Lu Lin and said this.
The other sensible officials also followed one by one and knelt.
"We request Prince Qi to perform the Fengshan ceremony."
"We request Prince Qi to perform the Fengshan ceremony."
In a daze, Lu Lin saw Ministers kneeling one after another before him.
Only then did Lu Lin notice that the clothes he had just changed into were actually a yellow robe embroidered with nine Dragons.
This... was this a virtual Space version of the yellow robe being draped over him?
In the crowd, there were still two or three Ministers who had not knelt to Lu Lin.
But their feelings at this moment were also extremely complicated.
They were all too clear about the situation in Da Feng.
Yet they considered themselves loyal subjects of Da Feng; how could they welcome another man to ascend the throne?
Only, they also knew in their hearts that if not for Lu Lin, Da Feng might already have perished by now.
After hesitating for a long time, when Lu Lin’s confused gaze turned toward them, those few who prided themselves on being loyal subjects also prostrated themselves and bowed.
"We request Prince Qi to perform the Fengshan ceremony and ascend the throne!"
In the next few days, Lu Lin had not a moment to deal with official business.
Every day he was being tossed around by all kinds of officials.
June the twelfth, an auspicious day.
Lu Lin performed the Fengshan ceremony and ascended the throne in the Imperial Capital.
He changed the state name to Qi; history would call it the Da Qi Dynasty.
After becoming emperor, Lu Lin’s daily routine did not seem to change much.
He simply followed his earlier plans to reform the officialdom of Qi Country and to care about people’s livelihood.
At the same time, more and more of those who had once followed by Lu Lin’s side spread out to all parts of Qi Country; like Lu Lin, they founded schools, built waterworks and engineering projects, paid attention to food production and the lives of the common people, and actively developed the economy. Whether it was trade, farming and sericulture, textiles, or handicrafts, almost every place developed its own specialty.
In the territories outside the control of Qi Country, after the various Rebel Kings heard the news of Lu Lin’s enthronement, they too in short order proclaimed themselves emperors.
Da Wei, Da Chu, Da Liang, Da Zhou, Da Yue, Da Xing, Da Zheng...
It was as if overnight, the original Da Feng had sprouted more than a dozen kingdoms.
The various Rebel Kings fought one another, plundering resources, food, jewels, and population.
The wars never ceased, and people’s livelihoods withered.
More and more people, without Da Qi doing anything, would pack up their families and flee into Qi’s territory.
On the way, they ran into bandits, fought wild beasts, struggled against hunger, and faced disease.
For every refugee who managed to reach Qi Country, there were at least ten or more corpses left behind them.
When this matter reached Lu Lin’s ears, he could not bear it in his heart and dispatched small detachments to go and receive the refugees.
Three years later.
Lu Lin was already thirty-eight years old.
In these three years, Qi Country had never launched a Great War, but by using small detachments to protect refugees, gather intelligence, secretly win over enemies, sow discord and counter-infiltrate—through this series of unseen methods—the countries surrounding Qi Country had unexpectedly been reduced to just seven.
These seven were all barely hanging on; not to mention the ordinary people in their lands, even their Ministers and emperors lived worse than a petty clerk in Qi Country.
In the fourth year of Da Qi, the first kingdom surrendered to Qi Country.
In the fifth year of Da Qi, three countries surrendered to Qi Country.
In the sixth year of Da Qi, Qi Country sent a Young General to lead three thousand cavalry; wherever they passed, three kingdoms were wiped out.
Thus, Da Qi completed its final undertaking of unifying the realm.
The realm’s hearts turned toward it.
Yet at this time, Lu Lin did not undertake any grand enterprises; every day he simply took a few guards and toured the areas around the Imperial Capital.
When the old farmers in the countryside saw him, they only needed to call out "Mr. Lu."
The children were even more delighted to see Lu Lin arrive.
Those above set the example and those below follow.
The officials under Lu Lin, whether out of genuine feeling or pretense, all followed Lu Lin’s example: whenever they had free time, they would leave their government halls and go among the common people, paying attention to food and vegetables.
At the same time, a series of seemingly inconspicuous policies were issued by Lu Lin.
He encouraged all regions to plant cash crops.
He encouraged the common people to develop handicrafts.
He encouraged the common people to send their children and grandchildren to attend school.
He encouraged the common people to raise chickens and ducks.
None of these measures involved large-scale upheaval, but each one was closely tied to people’s livelihood.
In Silence, without fanfare, Lu Lin completed a transformation of life at the grassroots.
At the same time, he turned the large numbers of soldiers left over from the wars into workers, concentrating strength on major undertakings and building vast water conservancy projects and domestic roads.
In the field of education, Lu Lin encouraged a hundred schools of thought to flourish; learning was no longer limited to literature, the sages of the past, and subtle, lofty principles.
One must also study useful knowledge: mathematics, geography, surveying, natural studies, chemistry, and medicine.
In the twenty-fifth year of Da Qi, Lu Lin was still hale and vigorous.
But he was no longer willing to manage some of the concrete affairs of the state.