Junior Uncle is too cunning.

With King Zhou's command, the great machine of the Shang Dynasty Imperial Court began to operate rapidly. The Shang Dynasty Imperial Court's actions quickly spread throughout the entire Southern Continent, and the feudal lords of the world soon learned of the news, especially the four great feudal lords who learned of it even earlier.

Xibohou Kingdom.

Although Ji Chang, the Marquis of Xibo, maintained a calm expression, his constant finger-striking gestures and the shifting emotions in his eyes revealed the turmoil within him.

At this time, many people were sitting in the main hall. Apart from the nobles and kings dressed in fine clothes, most of them were actually Buddhist disciples with shaved heads. Among them, sitting at the front were the ten Buddhist disciples who had been sent by Western Buddhism.

Nagarjuna Bodhisattva glanced at Ji Chang, a glint of light flashing in his eyes, and said "Amitabha." He then slowly addressed Ji Chang, "My lord, there is no need to worry. The two sages have already made arrangements. With the support of Buddhism, the Western Marquisate will surely establish a new dynasty. The will of Heaven cannot be reversed!"

Ji Chang nodded in agreement, though he didn't truly believe it. While the Western Marquisate now enjoyed strong Buddhist support, he was well aware of the power of the Three Pure Ones Taoism. However, given the current situation, he could only suppress his anxieties and turn to Bo Yikao and the others, instructing them, "Go and revisit the military camps within the country, and try to recruit more soldiers."

Bo Yikao nodded with his men behind him, "Yes."

Ji Chang turned to Ji Fa and said, "You should also speed things up over there. You must take down the Western Yi within a year."

Ji Fa's face fell. He knew that ever since the Great Shang Dynasty had increased its control over the vassal states, especially with the example of Marquis Su Hu of Ji Province, the vassal states no longer dared to openly annex the surrounding smaller vassal states, for fear of giving the Great Shang Dynasty an excuse. Therefore, the vassal states had been very restrained in recent years. After all, although they had ambitions, they had no choice but to restrain their greedy claws in the face of the Great Shang Dynasty, which had been established for hundreds of thousands of years.

However, if they did not expand outwards, they would not have the vast lands of the Shang Dynasty and would eventually be destroyed. Therefore, hundreds of years ago, the Xibo Marquisate began to expand towards the Western Yi behind it.

It should be noted that although the Southern Continent is the domain of the human race, the Shang Dynasty's imperial court and the vassal states only occupy less than one-fifth of its area. Apart from high mountains, lakes, and uninhabitable deserts, the rest are occupied by foreign tribes. Although the lands they occupy are mostly impoverished areas, they can certainly support their population. With their advanced technology, it is entirely possible for them to revitalize the true value of these lands.

Moreover, after these years of expansion, the territory of the Xibo Marquisate has indeed more than doubled, and it has been an open and blatant expansion that even the Shang Dynasty's imperial court could not stop.

The reason why the four major vassal states have become so powerful and difficult to control is mainly because their responsibilities are different from those of the other vassal states.

Initially, the four major vassal states of the east, west, south, and north were divided into the four corners of the Great Shang imperial court. The main purpose was to defend against the four barbarian tribes. At that time, the Great Shang imperial court had just been established, and the four barbarian tribes could be said to have invaded every year. The people on the border suffered greatly. The grain and money that they had worked hard to grow were all plundered, and even many women were captured every year.

Although the Shang Dynasty was furious, it had just defeated the Xia Dynasty and its treasury was empty. It had no money to support another war. In the end, Emperor Tang had no choice but to send the four powerful vassal states to the frontier to guard the border and fight against the barbarians.

In fact, besides dealing with the four barbarian tribes, Tang of Shang also had the idea of ​​weakening the four vassal states when he moved them. In particular, the four vassal states at that time, although they had made great contributions in attacking the Xia Dynasty, were too powerful and posed a subtle threat to the rule of the Shang Dynasty.

However, the country had just been established, and the four major vassal states had not done anything wrong. If they were to turn their backs on them now, not only would the other vassal states be dissatisfied, but even the newly established Shang Dynasty would be instantly torn apart. After all, the Shang Dynasty was able to defeat the Xia Dynasty precisely by relying on the power of the vassal states; otherwise, it would have been impossible for the Shang Dynasty to do so on its own.

Therefore, at that time, the feudal lords could be said to be the most important helpers of the Shang Dynasty. The Shang Dynasty could not afford to ruin its reputation because of the four feudal lords. Just then, the four barbarian tribes invaded, and Shang Tang took the opportunity to divide the four feudal lords into the four corners of the Shang Dynasty. This was to allow the four barbarian tribes to weaken the four feudal lords and to leave them with nothing to say. He also granted them twice as much fiefdom as the other feudal lords.

Although the four feudal lords were unwilling, they had no choice but to lead their clansmen and family members to migrate to the four directions of east, west, south, and north in the face of the rising Shang Dynasty and the recognition of the other feudal lords.

As for why the other feudal lords agreed so quickly, it was all for the sake of profit. After all, the Great Shang Imperial Court had been established, and the next step would definitely be to reward the meritorious officials. With the four powerful feudal lords gone, they would certainly gain more benefits. As for why the Great Shang Imperial Court was targeting the four feudal lords, they vaguely knew a little, but they all pretended not to know. After all, this did not happen to them. As the saying goes, "It's better to die for a friend than for yourself." As long as it didn't target them, that was fine.

Thus, the four major vassal states were outmaneuvered by the Shang Dynasty's imperial court. Although they ranked high among the vassal states, they had suffered losses in the battle with the Shang Dynasty's imperial court. Before they could recover, they had to face the four barbarian tribes who were eyeing them covetously. As expected, the four major vassal states suffered heavy losses. Although the four barbarian tribes were blocked, they also lost the strength to continue to contend with the Shang Dynasty's imperial court.

When the Shang Dynasty saw that its plan had succeeded, and that the four vassal states were not only no longer a threat to the Shang Dynasty, but would likely take tens of thousands of years to recover, the Shang court relaxed its control over them.

As the saying goes, misfortune may be a blessing in disguise, and misfortune may be a blessing in disguise. Although the four major vassal states were weakened, their foundations remained. Without the jurisdiction of the Shang Dynasty's imperial court, and with the local people witnessing their actions in fighting against the four barbarian tribes, they instantly gained local support, demonstrating that the hearts of the people were with them.

From the beginning when they could only fight desperately and suffered heavy losses every year, the finances of the Great Shang Dynasty were now a little better. Under the leadership of the Second Emperor, they launched a great sweep against the arrogant barbarians and drove them back to their homelands. The Great Shang Dynasty even occupied a lot of land. However, the Great Shang Dynasty did not keep this land for itself, but instead rewarded some meritorious officials.

That's how the title of Marquis of Jizhou came about. As more and more lords gathered around, and with the danger from the barbarians gone, the borderlands suddenly became peaceful. The four lords finally caught their breath and began to heal and recover on their own.

As for whether or not they hate the Great Shang Imperial Court, it would be a lie to say they don't. Leaving aside the dead and wounded soldiers, the number of clansmen killed or wounded by the four major vassal states alone is no less than a million. How could they not hate them?

However, faced with the already stable Shang Dynasty court, they could only choose to submit, endure, and develop silently. Generation after generation, whenever they made a slight improvement, they would be suppressed by the Shang Dynasty court. They were either drawn into campaigns against the surrounding barbarians or had their land taken away for no reason. They had thought about resisting, but in the end, they did not have the courage.

Until the last tens of thousands of years, the continuous natural and man-made disasters caused the Shang Dynasty to relax its monitoring of the feudal lords. The four feudal lords began to develop rapidly. Perhaps it was good luck that their clansmen advanced one after another, and even Western Buddhism chose to cooperate with them. Most importantly, the ancestor of the Ji family actually broke through and became Nagarjuna Bodhisattva of Western Buddhism. He was a powerful being who had reached the Great Luo Golden Immortal level. Without much consideration, the Ji family silently accepted the support of Western Buddhism and began to embark on the path of revenge and ambition.