Volume 5: Overlord of the Sea Chapter 629: White Rabbit Effect (Ending and Postscript)
"In the future, the empire will be stable and there will be many things to be done. We still need your efforts. The Great Chu only recruits talents, and our sights are not limited to one city or one place, or even one country or one region. As long as you meet the standards of Chu talent, you will have the opportunity to display your strengths." Bai Tu met a group of Wei officials in Yecheng.
Because there needs to be some sense of ceremony, the Wei State's "disbandment" ceremony will not be officially held until the first day of June. In theory, those present are still Wei ministers.
Starting from the surrender of Yecheng on April 25th and the move of Baitu on May 6th, Wei State, starting from the grassroots, will gradually submit their resignations and move into Chu. For the old Wei State officials, they will have to go through the Ministry of Personnel again and then be reappointed. On June 1st, the last cabinet of Wei State also formally submitted its resignation...
Although it was a voluntary surrender, except for grassroots officials, the more important officials had to live in seclusion for a period of time. One reason was to show submission and give the State of Chu time to reorganize, and the other was for their own reputation!
This was definitely not good news for the Cao and Xiahou families. After the fall of the Wei Kingdom, it was impossible for them to continue to enjoy the status of royal family as before.
But at least there are Xiahou Juan and Cao Pi...
The former's status as a Concubine of Chu would naturally remain unchanged, and Cao Pi's title as Marquis of Anwei was also doing well, and he even possessed certain real power because of his previous performance - of course, the prerequisite for real power was to return to the heartland of Jiangdong, rather than having real power in his homeland of Wei!
This was also not good news for many aristocratic families. While Bai Tu was trying to appease Wei Chen on the surface, he was not prepared to give the so-called "Wei State Reformed Aristocrats" too many opportunities, let alone any compromise...
All matters concerning slave workshops and slave-catching teams must be thoroughly investigated. The only "mercy" or "buffer" is that all matters must be reported to the Ministry of Civil Affairs of the Chu State before the first day of June. If rectification is completed on their own, any "previous crimes" discovered later will not be prosecuted.
At the same time, the State of Chu gave certain rewards and support to the conservative nobles who were unwilling to go along with the crowd - although Bai Tu also knew that part of it... was just separate investments!
In comparison, the "suppression" suffered by the Wei gentry was probably even greater than that suffered by the Nanjun gentry when Jingzhou was returned to Chu.
After all, the Chu State did not impose any additional punishment on the Nanjun gentry at that time. Instead, it provided a certain degree of protection. It was only because the Jiangdong gentry were already very good at playing games at that time, and it was difficult for the Nanjun gentry to defeat them in the early stages.
And now the radical factions among the Wei gentry have suffered a devastating blow!
Self-correction?
How could it be that easy? The Wei nobles were already on the verge of losing control, and they even dared to stroke Cao Cao's tiger whiskers before...
It was their performance that made Bai Tu feel the crisis. He was worried that the Wei aristocratic class would get further out of control and that it would cost a greater price to rectify it later, so he ignored the goal of minimum casualties and "pushed it forward quickly".
As a representative of the conservative faction, Xun Yu regained control of the main branch of the Xun family in one fell swoop. However... Xun Yu did not feel happy.
Because his previous suggestion that Chu should proceed step by step and gradually get the Wei gentry back on track was directly rejected by Bai Tu.
Xun Yu also vaguely felt that Bai Tu, who always seemed too merciful in troubled times, was intending to "kill the chicken to scare the monkey" this time!
This also caused more Wei nobles to migrate to the north and Youzhou, preparing to fight to the end...
Of course, what is left are basically "branches", but some of the branches are larger than the main trunk left.
However, the Chu State, which had completely controlled the Wei army, was able to suppress all kinds of backlash and safely announced the end of the Wei state on the first day of June.
At the same time, he made use of the northern gentry who had previously defected to the Chu State, such as Guo Huai, Hao Zhao, etc., as well as the potential talents attracted by the Enlightenment Department before the demise of the Wei State, to quickly integrate and digest the Wei army.
More than 10% of the Wei army was directly disbanded, and more than 50% were demoted to garrison troops to give back to the people and accumulate their strength.
More importantly, the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the Ministry of Revenue and even the Ministry of Justice quickly penetrated into the State of Wei... no, it was the people in the north, just like the other people in the State of Chu, so that they could feel the existence of the State of Chu and the changes it brought.
After grasping these two points, the wealthy families who remained in Hebei to "fight" against the State of Chu were completely vulnerable.
At the same time, the Chu army that was on the northern expedition also worked together with the Anwei army led by Lu Bu to suppress and expel the invading foreign tribes...
In the remaining half year of the tenth year of the Chuli reign, not only was the rebellion of the southern barbarians in Yizhou basically quelled, but the foreign tribes that poured into Jizhou were also basically wiped out.
In the eleventh year of the Chu calendar, the radical aristocrats who nominally supported Cao Zhi in Youzhou once again wanted to unite with Hetao and support Guanzhong. However, they were defeated by the Chu army in Yuyang. After Guanzhong failed to serve as bait, it was quickly pacified by the Chu State.
At the beginning of the twelfth year of the Chu calendar, the Fuyu Kingdom and the tribes of the Chaohai Peninsula surrendered to Chu on a large scale. Most of them were the young and vigorous factions of the Enlightenment Department, who overthrew the original kings and chiefs...
At the end of the year, Wuhuan and Goguryeo also formally declared war on the nobles of Youzhou and refused to accept employment and enslavement.
After receiving a large sum of money, the Xianbei people broke the agreement on the spot, killed Chen Ping who was present at the meeting, and then offered their heads to Chu...
In the 13th year of the Chuli period, Cao Zhi of the Pseudo-Wei quietly left Yijing and surrendered to Chu under the protection of his confidants.
In the 16th year of the Chu calendar, the Chu State recovered all the old lands of the Han Dynasty except the Western Regions Protectorate...
The Xiongnu, Qiang people and barbarians in the territory were treated equally, with the same writing system and the same laws.
In the 18th year of the Chu calendar, the Governor's Office of the Western Regions of Chu was established. In the 20th year of the Chu calendar, the Western Regions countries met again at the Governor's Office of Chu and protested against the infiltration of the Ministry of Enlightenment. After the protest was ineffective, the coalition forces of several countries attacked the Governor's Office of the Western Regions the following year, and Chu won a great victory.
In the 23rd year of the Chu calendar, the Governor's Office was abolished in the Western Regions, and prefectures, prefectures, and counties were established...
In the 25th year of the Chu calendar, semi-instant communication across the sea was achieved, the development of the central and southern parts of the Golden State was progressing more smoothly, and a stable waterway was built...
In the 30th year of the Chu calendar, Bai Tu nominally abdicated and Bai Qing succeeded him. Tu then became the Grand Emperor and observed government affairs...
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In the 100th year of the Chu calendar, at the 100th birthday celebration of the Chu State, King Chu III announced his abdication. After King Chu IV succeeded to the throne, the power of the Chu emperor was further reduced.
In the 127th year of the Chu calendar, after the successful test launch of the third-generation psychotronic guided artillery, the Roman Empire surrendered.
In the 152nd year of the Chu calendar, the fifth emperor of Chu, who played a symbolic role, signed a new supreme constitution, and Chu became the only legitimate country in human civilization...
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In the 412th year of the Chu calendar, the first Martian ecosystem was built. The new perspective on survival in the universe gave rise to a new trend of thought, and the power of the Chu emperor rebounded.
In the 531st year of the Chu calendar, the 17th King of Chu restored the monarchy. Three years later, the Chu officials, including the various branches of the Bai family, "suppressed the rebellion". The representatives of the various branches of the Bai family finally agreed, and the King of Chu abdicated completely...
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In the 135th year of the Republican calendar, humans have explored the last inch of ocean on Earth and implanted surveillance cameras in the center of the Earth...
Two hundred years into the Republican Calendar, the solar and lunar calendar could no longer meet the needs of human development, nor did it fit the lifespan of the new humans. It was officially abolished, and the Milky Way era began...
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In the 31st year of the Galactic Era, humans built their first star ring. A year later, the experiment failed and was destroyed.
In the 58th year of the Galactic Era, the first stable star ring passed the test period, and humanity took the first step towards perfect utilization of galactic resources and stellar energy...
In the 100th year of the Galactic Era, humans transformed the original solar system into a star ring model...
The advancement of technology and the times has made the State of Chu a small ripple in the long river of the past, but "Ji", "true qi", "armor"... still accompany human progress.
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In the year of &%& of the cosmic calendar, the sun of mankind's ancestor went out for the sixth time, and failed to ignite again...
In the year of the cosmic calendar (@@&!), humans first observed advanced civilizations in other universes. Due to their different life forms, no conflict occurred for the time being...
In the year of the cosmic calendar &&@! @, the fourth evolution plan of mankind was successful, and the life form leaped again, causing a resource conflict with the original allies, and the civilization chronology was interrupted for a time...
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Countless years later, "humanity" declared "man" the only legitimate ruler of the observable universe.
Countless and countless years later, "people" observed the cycle of entropy increase and calculated the exact time scale for the era to return to zero...
Countless, countless, countless years later, in the final attempt of "man" before returning to zero, the despair has disappeared in the evolution...
In the chaos of time approaching zero, "humans" received the remaining signals of races from the previous three eras.
In the First Era, "man" failed to achieve a reboot, leaving behind the "external force assistance system" that was the essence of civilization, which initially manifested itself as "war armor".
In the Second Era, the "humans" who inherited the armor system from the beginning still failed to restart it, leaving behind the "self-reinforcement system" that was the essence of civilization, which was initially manifested as "true qi".
In the Third Era, the "humans" who inherited the two mutually reinforcing systems still failed to restart, leaving behind a metaphysical civilization belief system, manifested as "Civilization Princess".
Moreover, under the influence of unknown forces, each of the three eras was like a "reincarnation". With the assistance of different systems, they still experienced similar history, similar development, and similar destruction...
However, this time, history has undergone a huge change, and even "people" cannot figure out when the change began.
Finally... just before the return to zero, the products of wisdom gathered and finally evolved into BOOM Ji, harmlessly restarting the universe era...
Countless extinct "people" have revived in consciousness and have the leisure to observe the differences of this era.
In the fork of the long river of time, "man" saw that in the land of origin of one of the ancestors, in an era without star rings, a new history appeared that had not existed in the previous three eras...
Although in the history of human development, the birth of a dynasty in a civilization without a single planet is insignificant, this is indeed the starting point of an era change.
It is said that this is called the "white rabbit effect"...
