Castle of Black Iron

Zhang Tie saw Meng Shidao off the stairs outside the Nine Heavens Hall with slightly narrowing eyes. Then he glanced over those civilian ministers and military officers in the hall.

Many people among them at present dared not look straight into Zhang Tie’s eyes.

‘No matter what, I’ve completed the first step——drive Meng Shidao out of here…’ Zhang Tie muttered inside. ‘I’ve got only two things to deal with. Stabilize the domestic situation before resisting foreign aggression. I will completely end this holy war in the homeland of humans and drive all the damn demons back to the underground…’

At this moment, it was the supreme target in Zhang Tie’s inner heart.

In order to reach this target, Zhang Tie could do many things that he didn’t want to do or felt reluctant to do in the past such as being regent and being completely merciless to all the enemies and opponents.

“The position of the Finance Minister is of great significance and should not be vacant. Now that Mr. Meng has resigned, do you have any proper commendation?” Zhang Tie continued to ask.

Ordinary officers were not qualified to recommend someone to assume such an important position. After hearing Zhang Tie’s question, all the Civil Ministers and military officers in the hall fixated onto those people right under the throne of Zhang Tie.

‘I’m afraid that Qianji Monarch has long reached a tacit agreement with someone; otherwise, he could never drive Meng Shidao away so decisively.’ Many people at present were crystal clear about it.

“I’ve got a candidate!” Zuoqiu Mingyue stood up and opened his mouth.

“Please go ahead, Military Minister!” Zhang Tie said seriously.

“I recommend Tang Ling the former commander-in-chief and Senior General Bearpower of Imperial Guards to be the new Finance Minister!” Zuoqiu Mingyue took a look at all the others as he opened his mouth. “Before assuming the former commander-in-chief of Imperial Guards, he once assumed the position of minister of agriculture. He has rich experience in political affairs. Later on, when Tang Ling promoted to a heavenly knight and ruled the Imperial Guards, he made illustrious military exploits. Before the holy war broke out, Tang Ling intended to promote to a semi-sage level knight. He then resigned with the consent of Emperor Xuanyuan. According to my knowledge, Tang Ling had promoted to a semi-level sage knight at the end of last year and has just stabilized his realm. He could stop secluded cultivation at any time. My lord, if you send an order, Tang Ling would definitely like to assume this position and contribute to Taixia Country!”

Zuoqiu Mingyu indeed had already communicated with Zhang Tie about this candidate. After knowing that Zhang Tie would never allow Meng Shidao to assume the position of Finance Minister, Zuoqiu Mingyue proposed the most proper candidate in their hearts on behalf of the military and top four armies of Taixia Country.

Undoubtedly, the most proper candidate for Finance Minister that could satisfy the military must be a mogul in the army.

The position of Finance Minister was of great significance which could influence many aspects. If it could be assumed by a mogul in the top four armies, it was definitely a good piece of news for the military of Taixia Country.

Actually, before Meng Shidao assumed the position of finance minister, the military of Taixia Country had been looking for a person who could assume this position. However, at that moment, nobody in the military of Taixia Country could compete with Meng Shidao. Plus the crown prince’s great support and many military moguls’ unrealistic expectations towards Meng Shidao, the position of Finance Minister finally fell in the hands of Meng Shidao.

Over so many years, the military of Taixia Country had long been disgruntled with Meng Shidao; especially after Crown Prince Xuanyuan Changying was assassinated, Meng Shidao’s deeds made many military moguls furious, which mainly contained two points: firstly, since the holy war broke out, a wide area of land had been lost; however, Meng Shidao still didn’t give full support to the military; armies still couldn’t use many products of official enterprises and receive logistics replenishment timely. Additionally, the trade of fiery oil and fiery-oil weapons were levied with heavy taxes among the people. Secondly, through the interpretation of some members of the Gobbling Party, the theory about humanity, justice and morality publicized by Meng Shidao couldn’t be accepted by people at all.

According to some backbones of the Gobbling Party, demons started the holy war because of the problems facing Hua people themselves; instead of demons. If all the Hua people’s moral integrity could reach the standard——match moral integrity with one’s position, demons would never start the holy war; nor would Hua people suffer from any other disasters.

Generally, in the theory of the Gobbling Party, if someone wanted to kill you ferociously with a saber, you should not resist and kill the opponent first; instead, you should review yourself and check whether there was any defect with your own moral integrity or not. Only people with mistakes could incur others’ attacks and encounter disasters. A person with perfect moral integrity would never encounter such things and would live in a perfect world.

Over these years, due to the surging attacks of demons, Taixia Country lost lands constantly and suffered from many domestic issues. Many people at the bottom of the society gradually lost their confidence in humans in the holy war, and had been gradually bewildered by the Gobbling Party and accepted the interpretation and theory of the Gobbling Party——Facing the sabers of demons, many people being influenced by the Gobbling Party didn’t think about defeating demons and chopping off demons’ heads; instead, they were praying and confessing every day and hoping to find reasons from themselves. They thought it was their own mistakes that incurred the attacks of demons. They wanted to resolve the disasters by becoming perfect people morally and reaching the “free realm” of matching their moral integrity with their positions.

Zuoqiu Mingyue said, if this theory of the Gobbling Party was really publicized, Hua people would kneel down and fight their enemies from then on. Evidently, Hua armies would be heavily inflicted.

Given his current position, even Zhang Tie wanted to jump up and swear at the Gobbling Party after hearing those words. Zhang Tie couldn’t understand how humble were those members of Gobbling Party who could attribute the harms brought by bandits and wild beasts to their own mistakes and confess about that.

Before Zhang Tie came back, nobody across Taixia Country could defeat Meng Shidao and the Gobbling Party, not even Zuoqiu Mingyue. After Zhang Tie’s return, Zuoqiu Mingyue and the military of Taixia Country finally saw hope…

They had to defeat Meng Shidao. This was a tacit agreement and common view that Zhang Tie had reached with Zuoqiu Mingyue and the other military moguls of Taixia Country.

Even though there were no old scores between Jinwu Palace and the Gobbling Party, given the empty theory that Gobbling Party publicized alone, Zhang Tie would never allow Meng Shidao to continue to assume the position of finance minister. As long as Meng Shidao held this position, the theory of the Gobbling Party would continue to spread across the country which would castrate the spirit of Taixia Country and Hua people completely…