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Ti flowed like a river, sotis with turbulent waves, sotis calm and unruffled, yet only mories settled in the passage of ti, glittering as we look back.
The festival day’s banquet eventually concluded with a delightful intoxication. The King brandished his sword and recited poetry, expressing his contentnt and leaving an unforgettable impression upon all who watched.
Soon, ten days had passed in a flash. Under the tireless efforts of the Prepetcha painters, the grandeur of the New Year’s grand ceremony and the night banquet was carved into the stone walls of the Palace of Wind, with the King’s poems also inscribed alongside for the Capital City’s poets to recount. The murals also depicted scenes of people offering dances, Sages prostrating in respect, and the presentation of the "divine sumr" sword to the King.
Two copies of these murals would be made, one to be placed in the College of Divine Might Priests and the other in the Divine Revelation Place for future generations to admire. They served as a testant to the King’s rule over the Lake Region and a symbolic representation of the elite of Prepetcha’s loyalty and official integration into the Alliance.
After the New Year, the College of Divine Might Priests officially comnced operation. Xiulote personally presided over the opening ceremony of the Divine Might College and left behind his own handwritten original religious scriptures, the Book of Ama Colley. Regardless of how broad the college’s future was in Xiulote’s long-term plans, the initial steps were but small budding sprouts.
The first class of students, barely a hundred people, consisted mainly of the Prepetcha Priests who had pledged allegiance to the Alliance and a few local youngsters who were recomnded. Their training focused on the role of frontline administrators, the Preaching Priests.
The curriculum for the Preaching Priests included xica language as the official language, foundational modern scripts; then revised histories of the Alliance, mythic promises of the Chief Divine; followed by the fundantal scriptures, the Book of Ama Colley, common sacrificial rites; and finally, the religious laws of the Alliance, as well as new political reforms in the Lake Region such as registered households, military and civilian settlents, military promotion by rit, and land and title grants.
After a year of short-term study, they would officially beco low-level officials of the Alliance. The majority would govern fiefdom villages as First Level Priests; a very few old Priests from the Lake Region would attain the status of Second Level Priest and involve themselves in the administration of larger towns. Overall, being admitted to the Priest College ant entering the fast track, securing a significant opportunity for social mobility and advancent.
While the school’s first batch of students had just started their courses, the selection for the second batch was already underway within the army. The second batch would consist of about two hundred students, primarily training to beco War Priests.
Seventy percent of these students would hail from the temporary War Priests elevated during the western campaign, including outstanding commoner samurai youths, while thirty percent would co from the exceptional ranks of the surrendered Prepetcha army. The training would last one to two years; besides literacy, theology, and ecclesiastical law, they would learn martial arts from seasoned samurai and master small unit tactics. In Xiulote’s plan, they would provide the foundation for a base of officers throughout the ongoing military reforms.
In general, the Priest College’s current curriculum focused on literature, theology, ecclesiastical law, politics, and the military, and would later include herbs, another area of expertise for the Priests. During his spare ti, Xiulote began to write a book, recalling the textbooks he had once studied, in an endeavor to compile an introductory text on natural sciences, to sow the seeds of rational thinking. Of course, everything was done in the na of the divine, explained through the language of divinity.
The Divine Revelation Place in Qinchongcan City was also formally established after the new year. Under direct jurisdiction of the King, the new Divine Revelation Place’s headquarters was set up near the Royal Mansion in the palace district of the Capital City, strictly guarded and of high standard. Free from the confines of the old Alliance system in the Lake Capital City, the new Divine Revelation Place grew like a vigorous Arican bison, bounding freely throughout the Kingdom, its corpulent form expanding ever larger.
As the most important research and production center, the Kingdom’s Divine Revelation Place trained Divine Revelation Priests and integrated the newly arrived xica craftsn with the old craft guilds of the Kingdom, effectively controlling multiple significant bureaus and residences.
First was the Mining and tallurgy Bureau, led by Necali, with advisors from the tal Family assisting, responsible for managing the Qinganbate mining region southwest of the Capital City, including the area’s coke and copper slting workshops. The mining area was tasked with regular deliveries of coke and copper materials to the Capital City and reporting on recent production matters.
Then ca the Gunpowder Bureau. Esko, who remained at the Lake Capital City, and was highly valued by Aweit, left only Talaya to co to the Lake Region, becoming the Director of the Gunpowder Bureau. The bureau included the saltpeter production pools in the eastern part of the fief and a gunpowder workshop and testing ground on a small island in Lake Patzcuaro.
It was currently the season for saltpeter collection, and large-scale saltpeter production and evaporation were underway. Xiulote summoned the chief salt worker, Moreno, and held a personal audience. Moreno was respectfully submissive, with clear speech and an excellent grasp of the saltpeter-making process. Having toiled away on Heavenly Fire Island for three arduous years, even the fierceness in his bones was diminished significantly, making him now eminently capable. The King appointed him as the head official responsible for saltpeter production, overseeing thousands of related laborers.
Within the Capital City, there were the Manufacturing Departnt and the Military Manufacturing Departnt, both divisions of the grand craft guild of the Kingdom.
The Manufacturing Departnt was in charge of producing cotton fabric, clothing, pottery, woodwork, stone artifacts, jade artifacts, gold and silverware, and common copper items; it had the authority to manage various types of civilian manufacturing and could, when necessary, conscript craftsn from all regions to serve the Royal Family. It was imperative that the manager of the Manufacturing Departnt was well-acquainted with the situation of the Kingdom and maintained connections with leaders from each industry, with a preference for employing local experienced officials.
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