Chapter 961 - 967, - 968: Healing the Leg, Learning of Immortal Island

The third year of Zhenghe, late May.

Chen Mo and his party arrived at the Great Wei Capital.

Chen Mo settled Si Song in the Prince Wei’s Mansion where he had lived before he took the throne.

After returning to the palace, Chen Mo issued an imperial decree, conferring Nalan Yiren as Princess Consort Yu.

Just as the decree was promulgated, Geng Songfu came to see him.

Geng Songfu was dressed in a purple official robe, his hair grizzled. He cupped his hands to Chen Mo and presented a small booklet, saying respectfully, "Your Majesty, this is the draft drawn up by the Cabinet to divide Jin Xia into Eight States. Please look it over."

Chen Mo took it and skimmed through it. In internal administration, he was certainly no match for Geng Songfu, so he had no objections to the Cabinet’s division of Jin Xia. He only pondered briefly and said, "Assign Haiyan Pass to Youzhou, and let Youzhou control the passes of Jin Xia."

"As you command." Geng Songfu noted it down.

"How are the southern war efforts in Jin Xia progressing?"

"Replying to Your Majesty, General Chang En has already sent back news of victory. The three great tribes in the south of Jin Xia are all willing to submit to our Great Wei. However, these three tribes have put forward demands to our army. The matter is of great importance, and General Chang En did not dare agree outright, so he has reported it and seeks Your Majesty’s opinion," Geng Songfu said.

"What demands?" Chen Mo clasped one hand behind his back, idly flipping through the draft with the other.

"There are three demands in total. The first is a request that Your Majesty bestow noble titles, not lower than Viscount, and they hope these titles can be hereditary in perpetuity. The second demand is that Your Majesty pardon their crimes and hold no past offences against them. The third demand is that these three great tribes each wish to present a beauty to enter Your Majesty’s harem as Consorts."

"They do know how to calculate, wanting this and that both." Chen Mo let out a cold laugh, closed the memorial, raised his eyes to Geng Songfu and said, "What is Minister Geng’s view?"

"In this old minister’s opinion, Your Majesty may agree."

"Oh? Let us hear it."

"Your Majesty, wiping out these three great tribes would be easy, but as far as this minister knows, the three tribes wield great influence in the South of Jin Xia. If Your Majesty agrees to their demands, you can make use of their power to soothe the hearts of the people in southern Jin Xia, and prevent the southerners from resenting our Great Wei. Once the division into Eight States is complete and Your Majesty dispatches officials to carry out Wei-ization in the Eight States, over time, the people of Jin Xia’s Eight States will become, thoroughly and completely, subjects of our Great Wei," Geng Songfu said slowly.

On hearing this, Chen Mo lightly tapped his fingers on the desk, weighing his words. "To become Our Consorts, they are not qualified. Even their Jin Xia Kedun is merely one of Our Consorts. Since they wish to present beauties, then We shall grant them a ’beauty’ status, nothing more.

As for noble titles, We can bestow on them the rank of Earl and permit hereditary succession in perpetuity. But We have conditions: their descendants may not be mediocre. They must obtain the rank of Advanced Scholar through our Court examinations; only then may their descendants inherit the Earldom. Otherwise, the title will be reduced in turn, from Earl down to Viscount..."

Geng Songfu thought it over and felt this would do. If they were to agree to the three tribes’ demands word for word without alteration, it would make them feel that the Court and Your Majesty were easy to sway, and they would then press their advantage further.

"Your Majesty is wise." Geng Songfu cupped his hands, then raised his eyes and said, "Your Majesty, if their descendants are reduced to Viscount, and the descendants of those descendants later pass the Advanced Scholar examinations, should their ancestral Earldom be restored, or do they merely inherit the Viscount title?"

"Naturally they inherit the Viscount. If the descendants of their descendants still fail to pass, then they will be reduced to Baron. If they never succeed at all, their noble titles will be stripped." Chen Mo considered.

"Your Majesty is sagacious. In this way, they cannot rely on their ancestors’ titles for shelter; they must strive for themselves, and their offspring will not become parasites in our Great Wei," Geng Songfu stroked his beard, a clear smile appearing on his face.

"Indeed. Not only that, our Great Wei nobles will henceforth be subject to the same arrangement..." Here Chen Mo paused, and after a moment of silence, said, "But they are, after all, meritorious ministers, so the requirement can be somewhat lower. Let it be Advanced Scholar; as long as the descendants of Great Wei Dukes pass the Advanced Scholar examination, their titles will not be reduced. Of course, the heir must be the one who has passed as Advanced Scholar; no impostors allowed."

"...As you command."

"Does Minister Geng have any other matter to report?" Seeing that Geng Songfu seemed to still have something unsaid, Chen Mo asked.

Geng Songfu nodded. "Your Majesty, at the beginning of last month, Lord Wu, Wu Changlin, returned to the Capital. At that time, Your Majesty was not present, so Lord Wu spoke to this minister about the matter of the Chuansha Nangong Family."

When he reached this point, Geng Songfu lowered his voice, and even glanced around.

"You all may withdraw." Chen Mo dismissed several eunuchs including Jia Yin.

Geng Songfu cupped his hands and said, "Your Majesty, Lord Wu said that according to his investigations, the Nangong Family’s Private Army has not been disbanded, but instead destroyed an overseas small country called Ryukyu and moved their troops into that country.

Thus Lord Wu speculates that the Nangong Family’s previous bouts of smuggling were likely to procure vast sums of money to support these people of the Ryukyu Kingdom."

"Such a thing actually exists." Chen Mo frowned. The smuggling incidents he had been able to tolerate for the time being, but the matter of maintaining a Private Army touched his bottom line.

"Is there evidence?" Chen Mo asked.

"There is testimony. Lord Wu dispatched many men to infiltrate the Nangong Family’s internal ranks and bought off some people within the Nangong Family. Many of them were discovered and eliminated by the Nangong Family, but the remaining ones are all in Ryukyu. It seems the Nangong Family has sensed something and is conducting thorough internal checks."

Geng Songfu paused, remembering something, and said, "Right, Your Majesty, Lord Wu told this minister at the time that he had one more matter that must be spoken to Your Majesty face to face."