Realm of Power

In Xinjing, Central Asia, the afterglow of the evening sun shines on the tall spiers and tops of the four-corner towers of the church, as if printing a layer of gold on the entire world. A group of Aden warriors wearing traditional black robes stand in front of the steps. , a few pigeons fluttered across the open space on the church, circled in a big circle, and then flew back It falls on the exquisite sculptures in front of the temple, the dripping fountain, and the stars and moon of Aden on the roof. The setting sun passes through the lattice glass on the roof and falls on the wall diagonally below the room, turning into colorful patterns. The entire temple As if immersed in a different plane from the ordinary world, time passes slowly. .

The eyes of Yaglen, the great elder of Aden, wandered over a landscape painting on the wall, with a bit of emotion in his eyes.

"Great Elder, Prime Minister Yu Fenlong is here!" A servant wearing a white robe walked in and reported to Yagren.

"Today's meeting ended so early? Come, please keep this carefully." Yaglen's deep eyes flashed with a hint of surprise, and he waved his hands to the servants standing on both sides. Four servants immediately came up and took the servants away. The deputy landscape painting was moved down carefully until I saw the servants putting this extremely precious landscape painting into a safe place. After a while, Great Elder Yagren withdrew his gaze, turned around and walked out of the room. What can make Great Elder Yagren value so much must not be an ordinary thing, but in fact, this landscape painting has indeed been treated as an ordinary thing for decades. , so much so that when Elder Yaglen got this thing, he couldn’t believe his eyes.

This is a map of mountains, rivers and mountains drawn by Qi Xia, a great traveler during the heyday of the Central Asian Empire, who spent thirty years traveling throughout his life. The entire painting is 3.3 meters long, from the Yanzhou Trail with stacked mountains and rivers to The waterfalls in the mountains in the south, the cities in various places, the pass cities, the corridors and rivers, are all on the map one by one. With one click, thousands of miles of geographical mountains and rivers of the Zhongbia Empire were merged into one picture. Qi Xia fell ill after completing the painting. His descendants followed his last wish and presented the painting to the Zhongbia government. , for the next fifty years, this painting was hidden in a warehouse by the Central Asian emperor, mixed with a large number of useless books.

After the imperial capital was destroyed, the gold, silver and jewels were looted by the prairie people. They had no interest in these incomprehensible books. They were sold as ordinary old palace paintings at a low price to Aden merchants who bought slaves, and were bought by interested Aden merchants. After being downloaded, it was transferred to Yagren's hands. Yagren Glenn then spent another five years, sending people to accurately inspect and re-mark all the mountains, rivers and rivers marked on the painting. Facts have proved that everything listed on the painting is absolutely true. The final painting The painting became the base map of the map of Central and Bibia sent back to Aden.

Such an important thing was exchanged for just three copper coins. Who would believe it? And now, Yagren wants to make more deals with the Zhongbia court.

In the main hall of the temple, Yu Fenlong, the Prime Minister of China and Biya, seemed to be leisurely blowing the tea leaves floating in the water glass in front of him, but his eyes with a bit of unconcealable heat swept over the so-called Aden tycoon merchant Yagren in front of him. in the living room, sighing secretly in his heart, Aden's wealthy businessman is indeed as rich as the rumors say.

Not to mention anything else, let's just say that this living room is more than thirty meters long and wide, and the floor is completely paved with the top-notch smooth marble. This alone is enough for him, the Prime Minister of China and Bibia, to look at it. Feelings in my heart, secretly speechless

China and Libya cannot produce marble. In other words, all these marbles are transported across the sea by fleets from the Gulf of Aden. The cost of such a trip is enough to make people feel heartbroken.

Because of its gorgeous patterns and smoothness, marble has always been regarded as the top building material by Central and African people. Its price is already sky-high, and it is still rare to find. For hundreds of years, it has been regarded as a status. After all, the weight and volume of marble are too large. Although the profits are huge, the quantity that can be transported by one ship is The quantity is only that much, which is far less cost-effective than transporting various light-weight specialties. Therefore, even if it is expensive, Aden merchants are still unwilling to transport it for sale, because the quantity becomes more precious, even if it is like Ruyu Fenglong As prime minister, his magnificent mansion can definitely be ranked among the top three among the ministers of Xinjing.

But what makes Yu Fenlong feel most proud is the study room which is only about ten square meters.

Because only the study room of more than ten square meters was paved with four pieces of marble, two by two, one meter square. This was contributed by a local second-grade wealthy family. It was originally intended to be used to welcome the emperor when he returned, but it was eventually used. Yu Fenglong used his study room. At this moment, Yu Fenglong really wanted those ministers who said at the court meeting that the Aden people were ambitious and that the loans to China and Bia had bad intentions and were not trustworthy enough to take a look. According to the financial resources of the Aden people, what else does China and Bia have? Worthy of the covetousness of these wealthy Aden businessmen

"The Prime Minister came so quickly, has the outcome of the court meeting already been reached?" Yu Fenlong heard footsteps coming from outside the hall, and quickly looked back, and saw Yagren in white robe walking into the door, and immediately As if he saw a large ball of gold coins walking by himself, he stood up and cupped his hands towards Yagren.

"Elder Yaglen is really powerful. He actually knew the result just from the time." Yu Fenlong said with a smile on his lips, "After the court meeting, I, His Majesty the Emperor of Central Asia, agreed that your country will establish a new port in Liucheng Port." Regarding the request to build the church, we have also issued an official document to the Six Cities Port, requesting them to fully assist in the construction of your church."

"I knew I was right. Your Majesty is indeed a holy king with a mind that embraces the world."

Yagren put his right hand on his chest and bowed respectfully. He deliberately showed a look of excitement on his face, which made no one think it was fake. He turned to a servant behind him and said, "Tell me the good news." Others, we can build a temple in Liucheng Port. This good news must be known to every god’s people.”

"Yes, Great Elder." The servant nodded excitedly and turned around. Soon, the cheers of other Aden people could be heard outside the hall.

"Since the court has agreed to the request of the great elder, when will the great elder agree to the court's request..." Yu Fenglong hesitated and curled his lips. These Aden people are really ignorant. Since they have already agreed, You should show some actual sincerity

"Prime Minister, you can rest assured that the five million gold coins will be delivered within a month, and there will definitely not be a single gold coin missing." Yagren said in a sincere tone, but Yu Fenlong did not seem very satisfied with what Yagren said. Instead, he stood up angrily and waved his hand to Yagren, "Five million gold will be delivered within a month, of course there is no problem, but other than that? Did Great Elder Yagren forget something?"

"The Prime Minister is really impatient. How could I forget the promise? This time, without the full support of the Prime Minister, we will never succeed. There are many people during the day, and the one hundred thousand gold that belongs to you will be lost tonight. Send it back to your house," Yagren said with a smile.

"Okay, okay, I'll be waiting at home."

Yu Fenlong stood up with a smile on his face, said goodbye to Yagren, dressed in a red-purple prime minister's robe, and walked out of the hall. Looking at Yu Fenlong's retreating back, Yagren's old face showed a touch of coldness. At this time, as the prime minister, he is only thinking about his own selfish interests. Such a country deserves to die! What I did was just following the guidance of God.

"Great Elder, do you really have to deliver the one hundred thousand gold at night..." The servant who just went to deliver the order returned and said hesitantly.

"Haha, what do you think?" A smile appeared on the corner of Yagren's old mouth. Since the Zhongbia court has agreed, then the value of Yu Fenlong, the prime minister, is gone. What qualifications do he have to take the one hundred thousand yuan? Jin, as for saying that Yu Fenlong will retaliate, it is no longer important, because China and Bia’s financial corruption has determined everything,

Before making this request, he had already fully understood the finances of the Zhongbia court. Zhongbia's treasury had completely bottomed out, and although the empire had relaxed its siege on the Deyang front line, the one hundred thousand Chinese The food requirements sent back by the Libyan army also made the entire Central and Libyan court confused and did not know what to do.

A hundred thousand troops are like a hundred thousand howling mouths. They want food, pay, and victory bounties. Every sum and every item is an astronomical figure. Now even if the entire treasury is turned over, I'm afraid, They couldn't even reach Chengdu, let alone the great victory of Deyang. The Zhongbia imperial army, which has always been known for its weakness, actually withstood the strong edge of the imperial army going south on the front line of Deyang, and finally forced the imperial army. Withdrawing back to Dahe Road, the great victory in Deyang and the great shock among the people made the reputation of the Chinese and Bian soldiers even more popular. It was even popular in the world that after several years of war, Zhongbian had been transformed and could actually compete with the world's No. 1 The strong military powers fought against each other without losing. This was the result of the return of the Holy King. It gave the emperor of Zhongbia a good face. He was very happy and the whole country demanded a heavy reward for the warriors who fought bloody Deyang.

As for Deyang, the requests for rewards in various categories reported one after another were like a mountain pressing on the desks of the officials of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Thirty accountants temporarily mobilized from the treasury were also working day and night to calculate the rewards. As a result, That is, just the first half of the reward for officers is already worth millions of gold, and the officials of the Ministry of Internal Affairs no longer dare to calculate the rest.

There is no money, and the treasury is empty enough to starve rats to death.

What to do with an empty treasury? There is not enough reward, what if the army gets into trouble, not to mention, before the war, in order to stimulate the morale of the army, the officers and soldiers of the Deyang front line were issued. As long as they can withstand the attack of the emperor, as long as they win, He gave double the bounty to barely inspire the army to fight.

At that time, the court unanimously believed that if the 100,000-strong Central Asian army faced the imperial army going south, even if they could win in the end, it would definitely be a tragic victory. If only 20,000 to 30,000 of the 100,000-strong troops could survive, it would be a huge achievement. Double bounty, five to six million was spent, but unexpectedly, the emperor actually gave up on Deyang. Although there were some battle losses on the front line, there were only a few thousand men, which was a huge gap from what was originally predicted. Nearly one hundred thousand troops needed to be rewarded. With such a huge amount, all the ministers in the court were blue in the face. This was a rip-off. , and there is no reward. The double reward originally mentioned was not even mentioned a word at this moment.

Under such circumstances, it would be strange for the Central and Asian court to refuse if I draw a five-million-gold super bun and smash it. This can be seen from the fact that Yu Fenglong, the imperial prime minister, came to visit six times in a row so impatiently. China and Libya believe that agreeing to build churches in six port cities is definitely a huge advantage.

In fact, how do these stupid Central Asians know that a large army is ready to launch in Aden, and the landing points are set at six port cities?

In order to minimize the resistance of the six ports, the workers sent to build the temple in name are genuine Aden warriors, with a total number of three to four thousand. After receiving the signal, these Aden warriors will take full control of the six ports as soon as possible. The six ports in Central Asia have only so many troops, which are basically configured according to the six hundred and one prefectures, and they are also city guards with low combat effectiveness. Only three hundred Aden warriors are needed to completely control the ports and open the door to victory in advance for the landing of the army. As long as the six city lanes fall into the hands of the Aden landing army, Aden's conquest of Central Asia is halfway to victory." Time, at most half a month, even if the Prime Minister of Central Asia wants to do something, what's the use! As the Prime Minister of the court, Yu Fenglong knows better than anyone that at this moment, the five million gold he offered is the life-saving straw for the entire Central Asia! Even if he, Yu Fenglong, wants to retaliate against us, he has to wait until the five million gold is in hand."

Agren coughed dryly, and his voice was a little turbid. His eyes suddenly became clear, and he turned and walked into a courtyard behind the hall.

In the courtyard outside the corridor, which was paved with neat marble, several Aden officers wearing mail armor stood solemnly on both sides. When they saw Agren, they knelt on one knee on the ground.

On the wide square in the middle of the courtyard, hundreds of fully armed Aden warriors stood straight, their eyes straight, and the solemn atmosphere was enough to prove that these hundreds of Aden warriors were experienced warriors. If this was in Aden, someone would recognize him. These murderous warriors of Aden are the famous temple guards directly under the Aden Red Dragon Temple. These temple guards are adopted by the Red Dragon Temple from orphans and slaves, and trained as warriors since childhood. Their loyalty to the Red Dragon Temple is unquestionable.

Stopped in front of the quiet courtyard where you can hear the leaves falling, Yagren's eyes swept across these determined and young faces. There was a complexity in his faintly excited eyes. He raised his hand and said in a serious voice, "My children, are you ready?"