We have fought to the Arctic Circle, and you want me to inherit the throne?

Li Che waved the note in his hand and said, "Your Majesty has already set out from the imperial capital and will arrive in Fengguo soon. The decree is also on the way."

Although Li Che had already informed the ministers before, they were still shocked when they heard that Emperor Qing was coming to Fengguo.

There was no joy, nor was there much fear or anxiety, everyone just felt it was troublesome.

Every single one of the officials in Fengguo had no intention of being loyal to Daqing.

Everyone is either a remnant of the previous dynasty, a criminal, or a marginal figure ostracized by the court. He is just an emperor, so who cares?

Huo Duanxiao, Xue Wei and others have never been excluded. Perhaps they were once ministers of Daqing, but now they are loyal to Li Che and will not consider themselves ministers of Qing.

As for Emperor Qing...who is he? We really don’t know him well.

Zhuge Zhe asked, "Your Highness, should Chaoyang City make early preparations?"

Li Che shook his head: "What's there to prepare? Just be like you usually are. There's no need to fake it."

He had enough confidence that Chaoyang City could definitely defeat 99% of the cities in Daqing in seconds, and only the imperial capital could be compared with it in terms of prosperity.

As for other cities except Chaoyang City, they are not inferior to the provincial capital of Daqing in terms of public security, people's livelihood, and armaments.

I have never exploited the people or indulged in extravagance and debauchery. As the saying goes, if you don't do anything wrong, you don't have to worry about ghosts knocking on your door. There is nothing I can hide from my cheap father.

Huo Duanxiao coughed twice and said, "Your Highness, there are some things in Feng State that cannot be displayed openly, such as...firearms."

Li Che slapped the table and suddenly realized: "That's right, that's right. If it weren't for Zhengze's reminder, I would have almost forgotten it."

Fengguo's artillery and firearms developed rapidly. With a strong industrial base, Li Che's knowledge from his previous life and a blasting genius named Chen Gui, the speed of firearm updates and iterations was extremely fast, with new weapons produced almost every month.

For example, the first batch of matchlock guns were no longer used by the Shenji Brigade because they were not stable enough and too backward. They were all distributed to the Chaoyang Army for training new recruits.

These things must not be seen by Emperor Qing. Li Che doesn't mind Daqing mastering black gunpowder, but that doesn't mean he will allow advanced firearms to flow into Daqing.

Li Che couldn't guarantee whether Daqing and Fengguo would go to war in the future.

At least this situation should not have happened when Emperor Qing was still alive, but once Emperor Qing passed away, he did not pass the throne to himself.

I’m sorry... I’ll just send the Fengtian Army into the pass!

"Your Majesty, the long journey to Feng State will take at least a month. After a while, have the Shenji Brigade go north for training. The Gunpowder Department will temporarily halt production. The cannons, mortars, and muskets will all be shipped to Qihuo Cave first."

Li Che thought for a moment, then looked at Yang Xuan and Jie An, "As for the soldiers of the National Protection Army, tell them not to call me Young Marshal during this period. If His Majesty hears it, it will be difficult to explain."

The two men immediately bowed and said, "Yes, Young Marshal!"

Li Che looked at it helplessly.

The two looked at each other awkwardly and quickly changed their words: "Ahem...Yes, Your Highness!"

Emperor Qing is about to arrive, which should be a major event that attracts the attention of the whole country, but it has no impact on the monarch and his ministers of Fengguo.

Fengguo remained the same, with reform, military expansion and development proceeding in full swing and in an orderly manner.

Spring plowing has ended and the surrounding wars have almost subsided. Li Che gradually shifted his attention to development and reform.

Among them, the greatest progress was in industrial development, especially in machinery and iron smelting.

Workshops like the Gunpowder Department and the Iron Smelting Workshop have already started using simple machine tools that rely on wind and water power, completely replacing the traditional manual hammering of blacksmiths.

Ancient craftsmen heated and forged the "fine iron" more than a hundred times, weighing and lightening it after each forging, until the weight did not decrease, which was called "hundred-fold steel".

Hundred-refined steel was already the best steel in ancient times, but in Feng State, the quality of any iron ingot was far higher than the so-called hundred-refined steel.

Combined with the molten iron smelted in ultra-high temperature blast furnaces, the swords produced by the iron smelting workshop are not only of extremely high output, but also of quality that easily crushes the weapons of the barbarians and even Daqing.

In terms of precision production, the Gunpowder Department has already used simple lathes and milling machines.

After learning modern knowledge, a group of top talents from ancient times demonstrated abilities that far exceeded Li Che's expectations.

Someone designed a pedal lathe that uses pedals to rotate the crankshaft and drive the flywheel, which is then transmitted to the main shaft to rotate it.

There are also simple boring machines powered by water, which are specially used for finishing hollow castings.

The modern knowledge brought by Li Che undoubtedly opened the door to a new world for these ancient intellectuals, especially the first group of officials who came to Fengguo with Li Che, represented by Chen Gui.

This group of officials were originally scholars proficient in mathematics and miscellaneous studies. In Daqing, they were despised by mainstream Confucianism, but in Fengguo they found a position where they could shine.

The trend of technological thinking has brought about industrial innovation. Even without Li Che's promotion, Fengguo's technology tree will climb rapidly.

The impact of technological updates is obvious. At least now the Gunpowder Department no longer has to worry about the production of gun barrels.

What is restricting Fengguo’s development now is its production.

It’s not that there is a shortage of manpower, but that there is not enough raw materials.

Making granular gunpowder requires a large amount of saltpeter, sulfur, and egg white. Before firearms became popular, these materials were barely enough.

Now the Shenji Brigade is expanding faster and faster, and even the ordinary troops of Feng State are equipped with muskets and grenades, and raw materials are obviously becoming scarce.

Not to mention the people of Fengguo, even Li Che hadn't eaten eggs for a long time.

Li Che had no better solution for this situation. He could only send more people to Wang Liu's exploration team to explore various mining sites within the territory of Feng State.

At the same time, the size of the caravan was increased, and the Fengguo caravan was allowed to bring glass, iron, and fur to the country in exchange for more raw materials.

While the industry was developing rapidly, Fengguo's reforms did not stop.

The construction of Fengguo University has been completed and the first batch of students has begun to enroll.

This group of students totaled more than 3,000 people, and the first choice was children from good families in Chaoyang City, as well as some literate children from the Mohe, Khitan, and Goryeo tribes.

The military system has been completely reformed. The old military ranks in the Ninggu, Chaoyang and Huguo armies no longer exist. They have all been replaced by new military ranks of 'army, division, brigade, regiment, battalion, company and platoon'.

Li Che also appointed Chen Pingzhi as the governor of Jilin Province, Yang Zhongsi as the general of Jilin Province, Qian Bin as the governor of Chao Province, and Wang Hu as the general of Chao Province.

The Liao Province is still directly under the jurisdiction of Fengguo for the time being, and there is no need to appoint governors and generals.

As Fengguo developed rapidly, time passed quietly. The short spring days soon passed and summer came.

Arriving together with Xia Tian was Emperor Qing’s imperial carriage from the imperial capital.

The imperial edict to reward Li Che arrived at Fengguo before Emperor Qing.