Otherworld Advance Team-Chapter 1772 - 1765: Promotion and Ennoblement

Emperor Wu was excessively enthusiastic towards Luo’er, contrary to the etiquette established by the Wen Family, so after the ritual concluded, Yichuan Xv led the Advance Team away, while Yichuan Fei intercepted Emperor Wu, preventing him from further contact with Luo’er.

Official dealings have their own rules, while personal connections have theirs. The Wen Family apparently did not wish for Emperor Wu to discuss personal matters with Luo’er on such a formal occasion. Besides, Luo’er had reason to suspect they were not prepared to give Emperor Wu such an opportunity in private either.

After the ceremony concluded, Luo’er, under the guidance of Yichuan Xv, met the leaders of the Wen Family’s Imperial Court, including the twelve cabinet members, particularly the current Hundred Chief, Yichuan Qing.

Yichuan Qing was not tall, relatively slender in build, always frowning, and no one knew what he worried about.

He was the civil official leader of the Dongsheng Empire’s government, the Prime Minister of the Cabinet, the brother-in-law of Emperor Wu, and also the patriarch of the Yichuan Clan, the father of Yichuan Fei and Yichuan Xv.

Possessing such a multitude of prestigious identities, Yichuan Qing seemed unremarkable and even quite low-key, lacking the strong aura typically associated with the powerful and noble.

Thus, although he stood at the head of all officials at the time, Luo’er passed by him without noticing.

Being second to none and above millions does not necessarily mean good days. Yichuan Qing was a living example. As the actual leader of the government, he was said to be extremely busy every day, with temples already snow-white.

Emperor Wu was only the nominal head of the empire, while the actual state operation relied completely on Yichuan Qing’s negotiations, even though there were twenty-four cabinet members, only about half were actually effective.

The political system of the Dongsheng Empire was somewhat similar to that of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, where the court also had six ministries of Personnel, Revenue, Rites, War, Justice, and Works, and the heads of these ministries were known as Ministers.

These six ministers concurrently held the position of cabinet members, including the Censorate, the generals in charge of the military, and the various ministers responsible for legislation and punishment. The entire cabinet, including the Hundred Chief, comprised twelve effective cabinet members.

These twelve cabinet members truly held the power and could participate in the formulation and operation of national policy, forming the main leadership body of the Wen Family’s Imperial Court.

The other twelve cabinet members, of course, were not merely filling the numbers. On one hand, they served as assistants to the first twelve cabinet members, and on the other, as reserves, learning alongside them.

In essence, as long as one could enter the Wen Family’s Imperial Court’s cabinet, even as one of the latter twelve cabinet members, they were already considered to hold significant weight. They could participate in the formulation of national policies, learn the skills needed to govern the country, and even propose objections and suggestions to certain policies.

Among the twenty-four cabinet members, only the Hundred Chief, Yichuan Qing, did not hold ancillary positions and was directly a cabinet minister. In the order below, the second cabinet minister also served as the Minister of Personnel, and so forth.

Although the administrative framework was nearing perfection, the major official positions remained controlled by the nobility and influential families. The 24 cabinet members, without exception, all came from the major aristocratic families across Kyushu.

Even Yichuan Qing, as the Hundred Chief, would insert his clan brother into the cabinet as one of the second twelve cabinet members, presumably preparing him to take over his position.

Apparently, if Yichuan Fei wanted to succeed his father, he would need to join the cabinet and become a member first.

Although he was only the record keeper of the Emperor’s Sect, he was entirely qualified to join the cabinet. Because the latter twelve cabinet members entirely did not need to consider whether they held actual positions of power, basically, as long as they were capital officials, even in idle positions, they were qualified to enter the cabinet.

However, strangely, Yichuan Fei seemed to not have entered the cabinet, leaving Luo’er quite puzzled.

In the Dongsheng Kyushu, dominated by numerous noble families, Luo’er could understand this tradition of passing down official positions, as the current civilian class lacked the power to compete with the military families. Therefore, to maintain the Wen Family Court’s rule, the nation’s power had to remain within the Wen Family’s aristocracy. From this perspective, passing down positions was understandable.

Yichuan Fei not entering the cabinet was definitely not as simple as avoiding suspicion. It was known that Yichuan Qing inserted his clan brother into the cabinet, so why would he worry about others’ gossip?

Moreover, even assuming the current Emperor Wu abdicated, the new Emperor would still be Yichuan Fei’s cousin, so him taking over his father’s position as the Hundred Chief of the Wen Family Imperial Court was highly anticipated and joyfully accepted by everyone.

After a brief encounter with the cabinet ministers of the Wen Family Imperial Court, the Advance Team was arranged to stay in a mansion within the city that had been prepared long before.

This mansion initially belonged to a prince, now refurbished for the accommodation of the Advance Team.

The entire mansion covered over thirty acres, with already over two hundred servants prepared to attend to the Advance Team. Yichuan Xv even dispatched a five-hundred-strong elite Forbidden Army, on duty in shifts, to guard and protect the Advance Team nonstop.

However, the Advance Team did not appreciate the court’s goodwill. On the second day of their stay, Cheng Ziang approached Yichuan Xv, who was in charge of deploying the Forbidden Army, requesting the removal of most servants and the Forbidden Army outside, maintaining only the basic living and security standards.

As modern people, even Hu Daoke, who indulged in comfort, could not accept the service of servants.

But they also knew well that solely relying on the few members of the Advance Team would be insufficient to maintain the basic operation of the entire mansion, so Cheng Ziang requested maintaining the number necessary to ensure the mansion’s operation.

Though reluctant, Yichuan Xv truthfully reported the request to his father, and after some coordination, the cabinet withdrew most servants, but the Forbidden Army outside remained completely unchanged, and even within a radius of two hundred meters of the mansion, irrelevant people were cleared out with the city guards responsible for patrolling and vigilance.

It seemed the Wen Family Court knew the Advance Team was highly sought after, so since they had already entered the capital, the Wen Family Court would certainly not let the Wu Family have a chance to succeed.

On the third day of their stay, what was meant to happen eventually did — the Yellow Door of the court came to the mansion where the Advance Team was staying, formally conveying the orders from Emperor Wu, appointing Luo’er as the National Advisor of the Dongsheng Empire, and granting him nobility and fief, primarily responsible for presiding over the empire’s ritual activities, which was sort of an idle position.

This appointment showed that Yichuan Fei was not lying, as Emperor Wu indeed had the ability to make the Wen Family Cabinet compromise. Because the Wen Family approached the Advance Team, not for some saint or nascent soul, but hoping the Advance Team would help reorganize the empire’s military forces.

Such an appointment only proved it was Emperor Wu’s mandate, not a decision by the cabinet.

Luo’er decisively refused the appointment without even thinking. On one hand, he didn’t want it; on the other, he dared not.

It must be known that Luo’er was a genuine military descendant, serving as the Captain of the Ministry of Defense’s Otherworld Office First Vanguard Team, holding a military position, so how could he dare accept an official appointment from the Dongsheng Empire.

Therefore, he unhesitatingly refused, stating they should find someone else more suitable. Moreover, he did not accept any noble titles or fiefs, resolutely declining them all.

The reason Luo’er was Luo’er, why he could become the Captain and Political Commissar of the Advance Team, was largely because he never made mistakes on matters of principle.

Leaving aside the question of feudalism, just by serving actively as an official of another country while being the head of the Advance Team, even thinking about the consequences made his scalp tingle, as he could almost directly foresee the outcome. It wasn’t just a loss of integrity, but also a shame that could spread for generations.

But evidently, Emperor Wu was even better at creating havoc. Upon hearing that Luo’er refused everything, he even intended to visit in person, something the cabinet barely managed to stop.

Cabinet Hundred Chief Yichuan Qing was left with no choice but to personally come to negotiate with Luo’er, and after some bargaining, Luo’er agreed to accept the honorary title of National Advisor, but returned all the salary and rewards.

Thus, after five days of back and forth, Luo’er was finally appointed as the National Advisor of the Dongsheng Empire. Of course, while it was called an honorary title, the real situation was probably only known to the people in the cabinet.

Luo’er’s insistence also forced the cabinet to reassess the Advance Team members, as they had almost never encountered people completely indifferent to fame and fortune. Their usual tricks were completely ineffective on the Advance Team, and they couldn’t help but worry about how they could control the Advance Team for their uses.

The source of this c𝓸ntent is fr𝒆e(w)𝒆bnovel