After being demoted, my 300,000-strong army trampled the imperial city!

[The timeline of Lian Ni Chang's departure to the borderlands after a heartbreak]

Chen Futu suddenly realized, "No wonder she was able to be extracted from the desert. Does she have any insights into the Holy Path? I'd like a copy."

[Please draw lots of cards, host, for many rewards!]

"Hehe, don't even think about my little bit of money."

Chen Futu was too lazy to argue with the dog system, so he directly released the wordless heavenly stele.

Lian Ni Chang's eyes lit up as she looked at the stone tablet. She sensed many sacred sword techniques from it. She cultivated the Heavenly Wolf Sword and the Heavenly Mountain Sword, which, when applied to this martial arts world, could be considered sacred-level techniques.

"I will place the wordless stele in Baiyujing Square, where you can study it at any time. However, I suggest you spend more time communicating with people, and also visit the Empress when you have time. You two should have something in common. Also, I will arrange for Wen Ruyu to come over. If you want to break through, you can spar with her and gain insights into the path of sainthood."

Chen Futu continued his incessant explanations, while Lian Ni Chang remained unsmiling.

Her background is the late Ming Dynasty, and she is also determined to fight against the Tartars, just like Qin Liangyu. That's why she was asked to talk to Qin Liangyu. Moreover, the current strategy of the Great Xia is to sweep away the grasslands. If she is interested, she can go to the north with her.

After giving his instructions, Chen Futu returned the blank stele to the square and then left Baiyujing.

After hearing about Lian Ni Chang's situation, Qin Liangyu actually went to Bai Yujing herself. What was most unexpected was that she and Lian Ni Chang stayed there for three days, and no one knew what they did.

Anyway, she dragged Lian Ni Chang out of Baiyujing and personally took her to tour the capital.

Lian Ni Chang finally smiled, and seemed to really like Qin Liang Yu, linking arms with her like best friends.

Chen Futu didn't understand women's emotions, so he simply summoned Wen Ruyu and Sun Simiao to begin an exchange on alchemy.

At first, Wen Ruyu kept it to herself, but she was soon impressed by Chen Futu and Sun Simiao's alchemy skills. She finally revealed some information: the pills that could restore one's appearance were not easy to obtain, and some of them were particularly rare. Hundred Flowers Valley had spent a lot of money to get them.

Chen Futu simply opened the medicinal herb storehouse seized from the Western Regions and the ancient palace and let her search. In the end, the only thing missing was the Ice Soul Cold Branch, which grows in the far north, that is, north of the grasslands, in the Onon Sea!

"If I had known, I wouldn't have killed the saint of Ononhai. It would have been good to use him to exchange for medicinal herbs."

Chen Futu felt a little regretful, but he should be able to get it next year.

In the days that followed, Wen Ruyu stayed with Sun Simiao and never mentioned returning to Hundred Flowers Valley. Chen Futu suspected that she wanted to take advantage of Baiyujing's cultivation environment, or that she had taken a liking to Old Sun.

"As expected, it's the Southern Frontier Poison Manual!"

Overjoyed to have obtained the Witch King's Poison Scripture, Dongfang Bubai grabbed Yan Xiaoxiao and dragged her away without regard for her wishes. The poor witch had fallen into the hands of the great demon of the Sun Moon Cult, and her days ahead were likely to be difficult.

In the battle at the ruins, the corpses of the Saintly Path experts were all smashed and could not be used. As for the corpses of the other experts, Chen Futu did not have enough manpower to bring them back to make puppets. Before leaving, he asked Xuan Yuanrong to arrange for someone to secretly send them to Dongfang Bubai. If handled well, they would be a decent fighting force.

The capital has been quite turbulent lately. Liu Bowen announced that the imperial examination system will be officially implemented next year, and the initial trial of linking banks and paper money has been successful, with plans to gradually extend it nationwide. There are also issues related to land, which have met with considerable opposition. The figurehead in the capital has killed many people.

Many powerful families who attempted to rebel were executed.

The war in the Central Plains had just ended, and there should have been no more infighting. However, some powerful clans, relying on their deep-rooted foundations, refused to allow the new empire to touch their interests and instead turned on the empire without hesitation.

This massacre resulted in a bloodbath, followed by soaring grain prices. Some forces secretly intervened, disrupting the markets of the two major grain-producing areas in the north, and even causing a large amount of grain to disappear without a trace.

With the chaos in the south just settled and the people's harvests meager, taking action against the Guanzhong granaries at this time would be tantamount to stabbing the heart of the Great Xia.

"There are still people who dare to cause trouble in secret. It seems I haven't killed enough, or done it quickly enough!"

As Chen Futu listened to Yu Qian's report, his brows furrowed deeply.

With the year-end approaching, the people have finally returned to peace, and everything should be going well in the first year of the Holy Martial Era. Is it because they think they can use grain to strangle the Great Xia and force the empire to abandon its established land strategy?

Chen Futu retrieved the unification of the Central Plains from the system. The system rewarded him with five million tons of grain, which filled granaries of all sizes.

"You're acting like nobody's starving. You need connections to get ahead. I have the system backing me up. What do you have to fight me with?"

"Mao Xiang, dig deep! This time, don't let anyone involved get away with it. Since you don't want me to have a good New Year, then none of you will have one!"

Chen Futu is now beginning to understand why Zhu Yuanzhang enjoyed killing so much.

These despicable bastards never learn their lesson; they'd throw their heads away for profit.

Soon, all the Imperial Guards and Shadow Guards were dispatched.

The capital was in a state of panic, and all the powerful clans in the surrounding area fell silent. Anyone with a brain could see that the Holy Emperor was serious this time. He would not be able to get through the year without wiping out any powerful families that dared to covet the grain.

"Your Majesty, such a large-scale war could be detrimental to the country."

Several trusted ministers arrived at Baiyujing.

In the first year of the Shengwu reign, a massacre was launched, something that probably no other dynasty in history had ever done.

"You don't need to worry about it. This matter concerns the ironclad laws of the Great Xia Dynasty. Leave it to Di Renjie to handle."

Chen Futu handed the giant sparrow over to Di Renjie, granting him the authority to mobilize troops. He could command all the major camps in the capital, including local garrisons, and even the Empress's White Spear Army. He could order the confiscation of property and extermination of the entire clan if anyone disobeyed him, and if killing one clan was not enough, he could kill ten clans.

Liu Bowen and the others knew they couldn't persuade him, so they fell silent.

The new empire has new rules. The old nobles, unable to sit on the table, want to overturn it. Given the Holy Emperor's nature, he cannot tolerate even the slightest thing, much less submit to the five surnames and seven clans like Li Er. The Holy Emperor's greatest skill is killing. Moreover, when the Holy Emperor was first crowned as a king, he said that he would spare no expense to reshape the world and rebuild the country. What he will eliminate are those parasites that are sucking blood from the foundation of the Central Plains.

Previous emperors dared not openly commit mass killings, fearing that too much turmoil would threaten their throne. But the Holy Emperor had no such concerns. In the golden palace, all the officials were loyal to him. He also held military power over the entire country. Who could possibly rebel?

In addition, a large number of newly rich and merchants who came from the north under the name of the Ministry of Commerce were eager for the old aristocratic families in the south to vacate their places. Now that they have jumped out on their own, the merchants and families who were the first to pledge allegiance to the Holy Emperor must be overjoyed.

As expected, when Yan Qing heard that the Holy Emperor was about to make a big move, she summoned the northern families, including the Shen family who had just arrived in the capital, as well as the Jiangnan Chamber of Commerce and the Western Regions Chamber of Commerce, in the name of the Ministry of Commerce.

The purpose of this meeting was to uproot the conservative group in the Great Qian Dynasty and ensure that His Majesty the Holy Emperor could have a good New Year.