Chapter 1225: Deficits and Slogans
In the time that followed, Qi Xuansu had to accelerate the handling of all matters at hand in preparation for his upcoming “closed-door cultivation.”
Qi Xuansu’s primary task still revolved around money.
As Chen Shuwen had said, both the Daoist Order and the Great Xuan Dynasty were in a phase of expansion, so in theory, such a downturn in finances should not have occurred.
The crux of the problem was that the Daoist Order had launched two large-scale wars in succession, causing severe fiscal strain in a short period of time. It was akin to Great Sage Lan suffering backlash after using the Supreme Taiyi Technique four times in rapid succession. It was not because his cultivation was insufficient, but because he had used it too hastily. Had the uses been spaced out, the outcome would not have been so severe.
Qi Xuansu had experienced the Fenglin War firsthand, so he knew it in great detail.
As for the Western Region War, Qi Xuansu had only caught its tail end. By the time he joined the Tiangang Hall, it was already nearing its conclusion. One division of the Tiangang Hall had been completely wiped out in that conflict and merged into other divisions, which eventually led to Zhang Yuelu reorganizing the Yaoguang Division.
The brutality of this war surpassed even that of the Fenglin War. On the Fenglin battlefield, the Daoist Order had commanded the massive auxiliary armies of Chancellor Toyotomi’s Office, whereas on the Western Region battlefield, the Daoist Order had personally entered the fray.
The root cause of this war lay in the Daoist Order’s policy toward the numerous kingdoms on the Grasslands.
During the Qi Dynasty, when the Li family was in power, the emperor claimed to be the Khan of Heaven, and the empire’s territory encompassed the Central Plains, the Western Region, and the Grasslands.
The Jin Dynasty that came after the Qi Dynasty was weak and declining, losing cities and territories until only the core 19 states remained.
In the late years of the Jin Dynasty, the Golden Horde army marched south, leading to the collapse of the former. The Golden Horde seized control of the Central Plains and established a brief rule. That was the peak of the Golden Horde, which controlled the Grasslands, the Western Region, the Rus Kingdom, and the Central Plains. Its military spearhead pointed toward the Western Continent, and it even launched expeditions to Fenglin.
Later, the Wei Dynasty overthrew the Golden Horde, driving the latter out of the Central Plains. However, the Golden Horde still retained control over the Western Region and the Grasslands. When the Great Xuan Dynasty replaced the Wei Dynasty, it gradually reclaimed most of the Western Region and parts of the Grasslands that had once belonged to the Qi Dynasty, giving rise to the Xiting Protectorate stationed in the Western Region and the Beiting Protectorate stationed in the Grasslands.