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(A/N: Don’t forget to give those power stones to Skyrim everyone!)
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"However, Your Majesty," Zhuge Liang said, raising his voice slightly so it carried to the furthest corners of the grand hall. "Even though it will result in a mountain of incredibly hard work, and our scribes will likely curse the paper they write upon for a week... I can assure you that every single official in this empire will happily shoulder that burden. To be given the chance to truly, freely celebrate the absolute unification of the land, a dream that has bled this continent for generations, is a gift beyond asure. The backlog is a small, insignificant price to pay for the dawn of an eternal peace."
The mont Zhuge Liang finished his sentence, the imnse tension that had gripped the civil officials evaporated.
A collective, resounding murmur of absolute agreent swept through the court. The provincial governors nodded vigorously, and the senior ministers exchanged eager smiles.
They were exhausted n who had spent their entire lives managing the logistics of endless war, the prospect of three uninterrupted days of pure, joyous celebration was a temptation too sweet to deny, even if it ant working by candlelight for a week afterward.
Hearing the unified, enthusiastic response of his court, Lie Fan let out another rich, booming laugh, the sound washing over the officials like a warm breeze.
"Well said, Kongming! Exceedingly well said!" Lie Fan grinned, his eyes sparkling with profound satisfaction. "Since the spirit of the court is so fiercely united on this matter, then the decree shall be absolute. Three days of rest, three days of joy, for every soul beneath the Hengyuan banner."
Lie Fan turned his gaze toward the master of shadows. "Chancellor Jia Xu."
"Your Majesty," Jia Xu stepped forward, bowing deeply.
"I task you with drafting the official imperial edict for the Grand Unification Celebration and the mandated holidays," Lie Fan ordered, his voice echoing with absolute authority. "Draft it with the utmost elegance. Once it is prepared, bring it to my study. I will personally stamp it with the Imperial Jade Seal. From there, your Oriole network and our fastest couriers will spread it to every province, every city, and every village across the land. Let the world know that the era of peace has officially begun."
"It shall be done with perfect clarity and swiftness, Your Majesty," Jia Xu replied, his dark eyes gleaming with the satisfaction of a completely secured empire.
With the most critical administrative and celebratory logistics firmly established, Lie Fan felt the imnse, formal weight of the morning session naturally concluding.
He stood up from the towering, golden Dragon Throne.
"The court is dismissed," Lie Fan announced, his voice signaling the end of the historic gathering. "Go forth, my ministers. Begin the preparations, and finish your ledgers. The world is finally ours to govern."
Lie Fan stepped down from the raised dais. As he moved, the elite, heavily armored Yellow Ghost Bodyguards seamlessly detached themselves from the periter shadows, forming an impenetrable, silent diamond around their sovereign.
Before he completely exited the grand hall through the private imperial corridors, Lie Fan paused and looked back over his shoulder.
"Chancellor Jia Xu. Minister Mi Zhu," Lie Fan called out, his tone dropping the grand theatricality of the court and returning to the sharp, focused edge of his personal projects. "Join in the imperial study imdiately. We have important, classified matters of state industry to discuss."
Both the Chancellor and the Minister of Revenue imdiately nodded their heads, understanding that the Emperor’s brilliant, economic machinations did not rest simply because the wars had ended.
As Lie Fan and his terrifying bodyguard escort vanished down the silk lined corridors, the massive main hall exploded into a chaotic symphony of excited, overlapping murmurs.
The strict decorum of the court fractured entirely. Ministers eagerly grabbed the sleeves of their colleagues, their voices buzzing with the intoxicating thrill of the news.
"The unification... it is actually completed!" an elderly censor wept openly, leaning on his staff. "I never thought I would live to see the map whole again."
"One and a half months," a younger magistrate calculated frantically. "I need to send word to my family in Jing Province imdiately! They must travel to the capital for the banquets!"
But amidst the imnse, overflowing joy of the impending celebration, the grim, bureaucratic reality that Zhuge Liang had highlighted also began to set in.
A group of senior treasury officials stood together, their faces a comical mixture of elation and sheer, unadulterated administrative dread.
"Three days," one official muttered, rubbing his temples furiously. "Three entire days of the empire running, trading, and taxing without a single brush moving to record it. Do you understand the sheer volu of docunts that will pile up on our desks?"
"It is a nightmare," another official groaned, though he was smiling. "A beautiful, peaceful nightmare. I fear those three days of backlogged paperwork will prove to be a much more nacing, terrifying enemy than Cao Cao or Yuan Shao or Liu Bei ever were."
While the court descended into joyous, bureaucratic panic, the absolute epicenter of imperial power was cloistered in perfect, isolated silence.
Within the heavy, rosewood doors of the private imperial study, Emperor Lie Fan stood behind his massive mahogany desk. The room was bathed in the bright, optimistic light of the mid morning sun, illuminating the towering shelves of historical texts and continental maps.
The heavy doors clicked shut, and Jia Xu and Mi Zhu stepped forward, bowing deeply before their sovereign.
Lie Fan did not waste ti with pleasantries. The conquest of the map was complete; now, the conquest of the economy required his undivided attention.
"Sit," Lie Fan commanded, gesturing to the comfortable chairs opposite his desk.
As the two incredibly powerful ministers took their seats, Lie Fan leaned forward, steepling his fingers. His eyes were sharp, entirely focused on the highly classified industrial monopoly he had tasked them with weeks ago.
"The celebrations will handle themselves under Lu Su’s guidance," Lie Fan began, getting straight to the point. "I called you here to discuss the secret foundries. Tell the progress of the soap and shampoo industries. Have you made any significant breakthroughs in the mass production process? Has the developnt officially begun?"
Lie Fan paused, contrasting the nature of this project with the other massive infrastructural undertakings of his empire.
"Unlike the Wagonway deploynt currently being managed by Minister Liu Ye, Master Huang Chengyan, Madam Huang Yue Ying, and now Kongming, which requires staggering amounts of raw iron, delicate topological engineering, and years of slow, thodical track laying, the chemical synthesis of soap and shampoo is entirely different," Lie Fan explained, his voice thrumming with intense, entrepreneurial energy.
"The chemical reactions are delicate, yes, but the infrastructure required to scale it is vastly simpler. We do not need to wait years for this to bear fruit. We need it flowing into the markets to capitalize on the post war economic boom."
Mi Zhu, the Minister of Revenue, practically vibrated in his chair with barely contained rcantile excitent. He reached into his wide, silken sleeve and produced a small, exquisitely carved wooden box.
"Your Imperial Majesty," Mi Zhu began, his voice breathless with awe. "The progress has not just been significant, it has been entirely revolutionary."
Mi Zhu placed the small wooden box on the mahogany desk and carefully opened the lid.
Resting inside on a bed of dark velvet were three perfectly uniform, smooth, rectangular bars. They were not crude, ashen lumps of fat. They were pristine. One was a pale, creamy white, another a soft, delicate pink, and the third a rich, earthy green.
The mont the box was opened, the imperial study was flooded with a fragrance so pure, so intensely beautiful, that it seed to banish the sll of old parchnt and ink entirely. The scent of blooming jasmine, rich sandalwood, and fresh, crushed mint filled the air.
Lie Fan’s eyes widened slightly. He reached out and picked up the pale pink bar. It was solid, smooth to the touch, and perfectly molded. It was exactly as he had envisioned it from the Book of Knowledge.
"The prototypes," Mi Zhu announced proudly. "Following Your Majesty’s divine, herbal formulas, we established the initial, highly secretive testing vats. The process of extracting the pure alkaline lye from the hardwood ash was perfected within the first week. The true breakthrough, however, was mastering the precise temperature at which to introduce the floral essential oils into the rendering tallow without burning off the scent."
Mi Zhu gestured to the bar in Lie Fan’s hand. "That is the Jasmine luxury variant. It lathers beautifully with water, completely strips dirt and heavy oils from the skin, and leaves the scent lingering for hours. We tested it on several lower ranking Imperial Maids who were entirely unaware of what they were using. When they erged from the washrooms, the other servants thought they had been anointed by the heavens."
"It is perfect," Lie Fan murmured, deeply satisfied. The economic implications were staggering. "And the liquid variants for the hair?"
"Equally successful," Mi Zhu confird, his eyes shining like a man who had just discovered an endless diamond mine. "The infusion of saponins from the soapberries creates a rich, cleansing foam. The mint and ginseng variants leave the scalp feeling incredibly refreshed. Your Majesty, the mont these products hit the aristocratic markets of the central plains and the wealthy rchant hubs of the south... the demand will completely shatter our initial projections. It will eclipse the silk trade."
Lie Fan placed the jasmine soap back into the velvet-lined box. "If the prototypes are perfected, what is the status of the mass production facilities? I explicitly demanded absolute secrecy."
At this, Chancellor Jia Xu leaned forward, his dark, calculating eyes reflecting the lethal, paranoid security asures he had implented.
"The cage is built, Your Majesty," Jia Xu rasped softly, his voice a chilling contrast to Mi Zhu’s buoyant excitent. "I have entirely isolated the manufacturing compound. It is located deep within a heavily forested valley thirty miles south of the capital, officially designated as a restricted military lumber mill. No civilian is allowed within five miles of the periter."
Jia Xu steepled his bony fingers, detailing the absolute, ruthless compartntalization of the operation.
"The production line is strictly segnted," the spymaster explained. "The laborers who burn the wood and extract the lye are confined to the outer ring. The artisans who render the animal fats operate in a separate, sealed facility. And the master alchemists who blend the floral essences and the final alkaline mixtures are kept in the innermost sanctum. They do not interact. They do not share als."
"And the oversight?" Lie Fan asked sharply.
"Flawless," Jia Xu smiled thinly. "I have embedded veteran Oriole agents at every single stage of the process. They work alongside the laborers, disguised as foren and guild masters. Furthermore, the entire compound is guarded by a detachnt of your most fanatically loyal heavy infantry, who have been told they are guarding a vital component for the Cannons."
Jia Xu’s eyes narrowed with lethal intent. "If any rchant spy from the south attempts to bribe our workers, or if any laborer attempts to smuggle a single ounce of lye out of that valley... they will be quietly, permanently erased before they reach the tree line. The secret is absolutely secure."
Lie Fan leaned back in his chair, a profound, triumphant satisfaction settling over his features. The military wars were over, but the economic domination of the continent was already proceeding flawlessly.
"Excellent. Both of you have exceeded my highest expectations," Lie Fan praised them.
He looked at Mi Zhu. "Zizhong, authorize the imdiate scaling of production. I want warehouses filled with these products before the Grand Unification Celebration. When the high ranking nobles, the vassal kings, and the tributary lords arrive in Xiapi next month, we will not just dazzle them with military parades and grand banquets."
Lie Fan tapped the wooden box of soap, his smile turning sharp and incredibly predatory.
"We will gift them the luxury variants in their guest quarters," Lie Fan decreed. "We will let them experience this miracle of cleanliness themselves. We will let them beco completely addicted to the scent and the status it brings. And when the celebration ends, and they beg to know how to acquire more... we will open the state monopolies, and we will bleed their treasuries dry."
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Na: Lie Fan
Title: Founding Emperor Of Hengyuan Dynasty
Age: 36 (203 AD)
Level: 16
Next Level: 462,000
Renown: 2325
Cultivation: Yin Yang Separation (level 11)
SP: 1,121,700
ATTRIBUTE POINTS
STR: 1,010 ( 20)
VIT: 659 ( 20)
AGI: 653 ( 10)
INT: 691
CHR: 98
WIS: 569
WILL: 436
ATR Points: 0
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