The Empress’s Gigolo

Not much was discussed over the hot pot dinner.

Ren Baqian proposed education for all, but no one other than the empress understood its importance.

Everyone’s thoughts still revolved around the idea of an individual leading the rest, whereas the development of all the technological stuff would be left to Ren Baqian and his students to handle. If manpower was insufficient, he could still recruit more students to help.

Not only did they think this way, many of the commoners refused to let their children learn something that they felt wasn’t of much use.

To them, things like steam engines, combustion engines, the driving force of gunpowder, and nuclear fission were too far fetched.

These things were so distant that they had no interest in understanding what these things were.

To them, practicing martial arts was the right thing to do.

Apart from being able to join the imperial court, mastering martial arts would also allow them to hunt and would at least ensure their own survival.

For an individual, thinking this way was no problem.

However, at the national level, it would be a huge problem if everyone felt this way.

According to the normal development of society… There was no estimate of how long it would take. It took so many years before the productivity of this society reached this level. At most, they were on par with the level of the Song Dynasty, but they were probably even less prosperous than that era.

Ren Baqian even wanted to give rewards to promote education. He wanted to reward students with money or food for every year of education they completed. It was only with this method that he could allow the commoners, who only saw the immediate effects of things, to be slightly more interested in education.

They only believed in things that were seen before their very eyes. This wasn’t derogatory, but was due to the limitations of this era. Under the circumstances that ordinary people couldn’t even ensure their own survival, the tangible things in front of them mattered the most.

Even though he wanted to give out rewards to promote interest in education, the biggest problem he faced wasn’t having enough money.

Although Dayao had already conquered the Yun Nation, in order to govern them, the aboriginals hadn’t plundered them excessively.

They managed to loot and bring back quite a bit of wealth, but this only managed to replenish the state treasury, which was previously empty. It wasn’t a small sum of money compared to the treasury’s revenue in the past, but there were too many things that they had to do. The construction of roads alone had consumed a hefty amount of financial and physical resources. With the amount of money they had, it was impossible to support Ren Baqian’s plans.

As such, his priority had shifted to making money.

First, the prerequisite would be to stabilize the former Yun Nation.

After making all these plans, they still had to completely stabilize the Yun Nation before vigorously developing its economy, education, and productivity as well as increasing the overall prosperity of the society. It was only after this that they would be able to move on to develop other plans.

This time around, unlike the past, the six ministers and two elders understood the importance of the Yun Nation and its future direction. As such, they wouldn’t be hindering the implementation of various matters.

“And there is also the last thing that I mentioned earlier—experts! Under the circumstances that technology hasn’t reached a state where it can completely suppress the strength of a person, highly skilled experts are indispensable and will play a very important role,” Ren Baqian said, reiterating the final point that he mentioned earlier.

“The descendants of the aboriginals have got it covered.” Qin Chuan patted his chest. “When we have broken through the Sixty Thousand Mountains, we will try to find somewhere desolate and send some experts there for cultivation. Since our forefathers have done it, we can certainly do it as well!”

Everyone nodded and it was clear that they agreed with what he said.

“It’s undeniable that the aboriginals are powerful. However, can the aboriginals alone defeat the Wan Tribe? With a population of more than ten million people whose strength falls way behind the enemy’s, will they be able to withstand the Wan Tribe’s onslaught? If they were so easy to deal with, the human race wouldn’t have been driven out to here. Besides Her Majesty, are any of you confident that you can reach the level of the man who conjured the fireball in the illusion?” Ren Baqian patted the empress’s hand when he mentioned her.

He continued, “Her Majesty’s talents are unquestionable. Even in this land of exile, she can still break through at any time. With her age, it’s appropriate to say that she’s the most talented person in the last century or millenium. However, is the talent of Her Majesty alone sufficient? In the face of the Wan Tribe who have complete heritage and have lived for god knows how long? Or do you want to see Her Majesty fight it out on her own?”

“Zhao Prince Consort, please share your thoughts.” Shi Qing smiled because he had already guessed what Ren Baqian was going to say.

“Even though these ordinary humans aren’t strong, there are some who are exceedingly brilliant. Their population is larger, and they have a huge number of highly talented people as well. From what I recall, out of the top ten experts in the world, Her Majesty and the Great General are the only aboriginals, right?”

“That’s because most of the aboriginal experts remain anonymous and reside in the mountains,” Qin Chuan immediately retorted.

“There are certainly reasons for this, but how many such experts are there? Although the Sixty Thousand Mountains is vicious, it’s a treasure trove as well. Could there be more aboriginal experts in the mountains compared to the rest of the world?”

“As long as an aboriginal attains the Cardinal Heaven level, they will be on par with ordinary Spirit Wheel experts and might even be able to fight two of them at once!” Qin Chuan seemed to think that Ren Baqian was belittling the aboriginals and felt quite angry.

“What about Li Yuanzhu? Besides Her Majesty, who else can compete with her? What about the testicle kicking monster? There is still the second ranked expert in the world who has been missing in action!”

“You want to convince all those experts?” The empress frowned slightly. She wasn’t sure about the others, but she had seen Li Yuanzhu before and had quite a strong impression of her.

“It isn’t a definite no. Apart from these well-known experts, there are also young talents who are up-and-coming. They are pretty skilled as well. If given the chance, they might be able to grow to a very high level. Furthermore, there are some hidden talents who have been overlooked. Even if they end up unable to reach a high level, they can still become warriors,” Ren Baqian explained.

“Don’t forget, we are trying to reclaim that piece of land. If we fail, there may not be a chance for us to come back again. Back in that era, the Wan Tribe suffered major casualties. Plus, the human race still had experts who pressed on. This was the reason why humans were banished to this place.

Today, they have already recuperated while humans have gotten weak. If we go back there, they may not just chase us away. As such, this is something that involves all aboriginals as well as every member of the human race.

As soon as we set foot on that path, there’s no room for retreat. We will need every ounce of strength that we can gather. The aboriginals are a part of the human race. I’m as well, and so are they.” Even though Ren Baqian’s speech didn’t end up impassioned, it was resolute and got everybody thinking.

“You want to leak out information about the Wan Tribe?” the empress asked.

Ren Baqian shook his head and replied, “Not for the time being. It’s not required yet, but we can spread the news to a few top experts such as the testicle kicking monster and Li Yuanzhu. Other than the testicle kicking monster (Li Fu has completely become the testicle kicking monster), the other people might have doubts about this. After all, although martial arts have been passed down from ancient times, there are almost no historical records.

If we can garner the support of these top experts, we will have a greater chance of convincing the others. Besides, not only do we have to convince these experts, we can also use other methods such as holding martial arts conferences to select young experts and youths from all over Dayao, the Jing Tribe, and the Yun Nation.

We need to execute both tasks at the same time. On one hand, we can improve productivity, allow more people to break free from the most fundamental types of production, and make them the cornerstone of the technological breakthrough as the masters of the pen. On the other hand, we can select highly talented experts and youths and cultivate them to higher levels as masters of the sword.”

“What other opinions do you guys have?” The empress looked at the others.

“I’m afraid that some of them are ill-conceived,” Shi Qing voiced out. There were so many experts, and many of them had strange techniques, both orthodox and unorthodox. Let alone mentioning whether or not they could be convinced, he was afraid that some of them might harbor unfathomable intentions and cause a lot of trouble in the future.

They might even cause considerable amounts of damage!

“Naturally, our primary targets are the experts who have a neutral standpoint. For those who are more questionable, we can get in touch with them and observe their behavior. As for the malicious ones, we can simply kill them.”

Those with a neutral position might not necessarily be good either, and there might even be characters like Yue Buqun. However, these people were usually clearer about the bottom line and would be able to differentiate right from wrong. Even if they didn’t, there would be highly-skilled experts monitoring and guiding them.

“What about Great Xia and the Chen Nation?” Hong Wu suddenly asked.

In fact, these two nations were very important. Not only did they have vast territories, but they also had various minerals and a large population base.

However, before the Yun Nation was fully under control, it would clearly be unwise to target these two nations.

Apart from occupation, there were other methods of obtaining these nations’ minerals and manpower.

For instance, economic plunder and talent drain.

No matter which method was used, the main focus would be to develop Dayao first.