Chapter 1003

Xiao Ming was signing the order to attack the British and French colonies. Imperial decrees were not to be used casually unless it was a major matter.

For some trivial orders, he was still accustomed to signing documents.

He glanced at Cui Shang’an and said, “How does it feel to be the Chief of General Staff?”

“Thanks to Your Majesty’s grace, everything is bestowed by Your Majesty. I am naturally grateful,” Cui Shang’an organized his words.

Xiao Ming smiled, “We are family. Speaking of which, you are still my younger brother-in-law, so there’s no need for such polite words.”

Cui Shang’an’s heart immediately felt as sweet as honey. To him, nothing was more important than these words. He said at a loss, “Your Majesty…”

“Hahaha, don’t be nervous. Today I called you here to formulate the war plan for Southeast Asia and to coordinate the war efforts.” He handed a draft plan to Cui Shang’an.

Cui Shang’an suppressed his excitement and took the plan for Southeast Asia to read it. This paper outlined the general direction of the attack, and more detailed aspects still needed to be perfected by them. After all, governing such a large country required an emperor to handle many political affairs, making it impossible to manage every single detail.

“I will go back and organize the General Staff to formulate the operational plan, and allocate supplies and equipment,” Cui Shang’an said sternly. He cherished his current position and dared not be negligent in any way.

Xiao Ming nodded in satisfaction. He had actually considered the issue of using Cui Shang’an for a long time and observed him for a long time. In fact, his suppression of Cui Shang’an in previous years was deliberate; he wanted to see Cui Shang’an’s temperament.

The result was satisfactory to him. Although Cui Shang’an was somewhat disheartened by it, he remained dutiful and did not instigate disputes by relying on his status as the Prince of Huainan.

After all, although the plan reducing the power of feudal lords was successful, if Cui Shang’an had any instructions, a large number of people would still respond.

And in terms of specific positions, Cui Shang’an was also conscientious, so after weighing it, he promoted Cui Shang’an. However, the General Staff looked very intimidating, but in fact, it was just like his secretary in the army.

Cui Shang’an became his close minister, but he still did not have military power, so there was nothing to worry about. In addition, the internal struggles in the court were intensifying, and he was unwilling to promote those recommended by Pang Yukun or Fei Ji. Only Cui Shang’an was the most suitable.

After all, Cui Shang’an was also an imperial relative and had participated in the campaigns against King Yan and King Zhao, achieving great military successes, so others could not say anything.

“By the way, there’s this too!” Xiao Ming picked up another signed order. “This is for Qi Guangyi, the commander of the Northwest Military Region. Now that the rifle cavalry has been formed, tell him to quickly march west and annihilate the barbarian Golden Tent.”

“Yes, Your Majesty!” Cui Shang’an saluted.

Xiao Ming nodded, then asked, “Is the Prince of Huainan still well recently? I haven’t seen him for a while.”

Mentioning this, Cui Shang’an suddenly felt a little awkward. He said, “Father’s health has always been good, but recently he’s been somewhat obsessed with plays. He goes to the theater every day when he’s free to listen to plays. However, something happened two days ago. He hit an official.”

“The Prince of Huainan is still strong in his old age, and his skills are undiminished. I have heard about this matter, and he was right to hit him.” Xiao Ming laughed. Yesterday, he had just received a memorial, and the content of the memorial was to accuse the Prince of Huainan of hitting someone.

Ever since he became emperor, Xiao Ming could no longer trust memorials. Just as Concubine Zhen said, the most unreliable thing in this world was a memorial.

The emperor sat in the palace, and the affairs of the world were left to the memorials of the officials. So, he sent someone to investigate, and indeed, it was true that the Prince of Huainan had hit someone.

However, there was a reason for it. The incident began when the official’s son openly molested a civilian woman in the theater, which provoked the Prince of Huainan to take action.

Cui Shang’an breathed a slight sigh of relief. He knew that someone would definitely submit a memorial.

After mentioning this, Xiao Ming sent Cui Shang’an back. In recent years, he had been focused on fighting wars in the north and south, but his own team was facing more and more problems.

He had to admit that this was a lingering effect of his rapid development. In ten years, the Great Yu Empire had developed from a cold weapon nation to an industrial nation.

This growth rate was too fast, and generally speaking, the faster the growth, the more problems were overlooked. Simply put, the thinking of people in this era lagged behind the speed of national development, or rather, the quality of the citizens did not keep up with the development.

This resulted in the people enjoying advanced material comforts while still living with outdated ideas.

After all, the promotion of New Confucianism was most effective for those who had not yet accepted traditional ideas, and had limited impact on those who had already been contaminated by old ideas.

This was like how people in their seventies and eighties today could not accept or understand young people playing with their phones all day long; it was a generational gap.

It was precisely because of this that the idea of official-centricism remained strong in the Empire, and the phenomenon of officials becoming aristocratic continued to exist.

The incident of certain official’s children acting arrogantly was not the only one exposed by the Prince of Huainan incident.

If this was the case in Qingzhou, one could only imagine how many such official’s children there were across the country.

However, even now, his crackdown was only treating the symptoms, not the root cause, because nearly 80% of the officials throughout the Empire were former officials of the Great Yu Empire, especially in the south. Taking over such a massive area meant that the few people from the political academy were merely a drop in the bucket.

Now he could only wait for the new generation to grow and replace them. Before that, he could only suppress them with all his might to prevent them from causing worse effects.

Thinking of this, he specifically instructed the Security Bureau to arrest the unruly official’s son. Logically, it was ridiculous for him, an emperor, to handle such a minor matter, but to warn the officials, he had no choice but to personally intervene.

Just as he was about to give orders to the guards, Qian Dafu suddenly walked in and said, “Your Majesty, Wang Xuan requests an audience.”

“Let him in.”

Xiao Ming said. Wang Xuan had been establishing intelligence systems in Goryeo and Japan recently to deepen control over these two regions.

Qian Dafu acknowledged and turned to leave. A moment later, Wang Xuan entered.

Bowing, Wang Xuan said, “Your Majesty, some subtle changes have occurred in Japan, which makes me a bit uneasy. I have come specifically to report to Your Majesty.”

“Tell me.”

After a moment of thought, Wang Xuan said, “The civil unrest in Japan seems to be intensifying, and now the rebels, composed of farmers, merchants, and samurai, have put forward the slogan of reform, demanding that Yamada Nobunaga learn from the Empire.”

“Reform,” Xiao Ming frowned.

After Japan signed the surrender document, the civil unrest in Japan had not stopped. Yamada Nobunaga had been suppressing the rebellion, and he had not paid too much attention to it, after all, there were many daimyos in Japan, and warfare was common.

But now the rebels had actually put forward a slogan similar to national reform, which was problematic and somewhat resembled the Meiji Restoration.