Chapter 1352 – Backbone of the Exploration Team

"Greetings, your majesty!"

The officials all bowed in an orderly manner.

The court assembly was of the highest order and was the strictest meeting of the year. It would only be held once per year. Every time, it would be to announce really important matters to the Empire.

As such, no one dared to behave inappropriately at such an occasion.

The moment the Censorate official discovered someone acting up, they would be immediately punished. A light punishment was a fine, while a heavy one would be demotion.

After which, Ouyang Shuo sat on the dragon throne.

"I summoned all of you here because I have things to announce." For the things that needed to be said, Ouyang Shuo had already talked to the ministers alone. The current court assembly was just a brief.

Ouyang Shuo did not say more, directly ordering Bai Nanpu to announce the decree.

Bai Nanpi understood. He stood still at the right corner of the front. Behind him was a court lady holding a tray with a stack of papers on it. Obviously, he had more than one decree to announce.

He took up the first one, slowly opened it, and sang, "Chu Queen, receive the decree!"

When she heard that, Bing'er slowly walked to the front and respectfully bowed.

Looking at the slowly bowing girl, Ouyang Shuo gave her a look of encouragement expression that contained happiness, excitement, and other complicated expressions.

This was a historical moment for the Empire.

"The emperor decrees as such: he is about to go on a journey, but the Empire cannot be without a ruler. While he is gone, Chu Queen Ouyang Bing will take over to manage the Empire's matters and will inherit the Empire's orthodoxy."

After taking over, she would place down all her current positions except her role as the Jingji warzone commander, the 1st commander of the warzone.

Ouyang Shuo would continue to be the honorary commander of the Jingji warzone.

This was to ensure the smoothness of her rule.

After Bing'er backed down, Bai Nanpu continued, "Africa Governor-General Mulan Yue, receive the decree!"

Mulan Yue walked up.

"The emperor decrees as such: Africa Governor-General Mulan Yue, as a meritorious official of the empire, upgraded to queen, awarding her the title of Mulan Queen; thus title can be passed down to later generations!"

After Bai Nanpu read that, the Imperial Court clamored slightly.

Before this, not to mention the officials, but even Mulan Yue herself did not know that the emperor would make her a queen, much less a hereditary one.

The significance of this was simply shocking.

Before this, Great Xia had seven kings and queens, but the only one with power was Ouyang Bing.

Without a doubt, Mulan Yue was the first queen outside of the family.

Seeing that she was stunned, Ouyang Shuo smiled and said, "Minister Mulan, you deserve this. I've said before that the Empire will not forget meritorious officials; accept it!"

Mulan Yue respectfully walked up.

Following which, Bai Hua, Feng Qihuang, Gong Chengshi, and Wufu were all given queen or king titles. The titles of their ranks were named after their old territory.

For example, Bai Hua became the Consonance Queen.

Based on the system, names like Chu Queen and Qin King were Grade 1. On the other hand, the titles of Mulan Queen and Consonance Queen were secondary Grade 1 titles.

Even so, it was a great show of kindness from the emperor.

This arrangement was to calm them down and to remind them not to forget their roots. They must not forget who promoted them from a small Lord to their current position.

The imperial decree continued.

As expected, Zhang Tingyu entered the Cabinet and became an assistant.

Not only that, but he even took over Kou Zhun's position, becoming the personnel warzone manager. Now, his position was only lower than the Grand Secretary's.

Zhang Tingyu was previously the director of the Official Ruling Department. As such, him entering and managing personnel did not pose any problems.

Without a doubt, he was one of the people Ouyang Shuo had selected to help Ouyang Bing. He would be the official in the Cabinet that Bing'er relied on the most.

Apart from that, the Cabinet also received a series of adjustments.

Cabinet Grand Secretary Jiang Shang and assistant Zhang Liang were removed. They would no longer hold any role in the Imperial Court.

Obviously, they would follow Ouyang Shuo to Planet Hope.

Kou Zhun would be promoted to Grand Secretary.

The vacancy in the Administrative Mentor Court left behind by Zhang Liang would be filled by special consultant Old Chen. Regardless of the plans he had, they would not be able to find out unless he was placed in an important position.

Putting him in charge of the Administrative Mentor Court also had a practical meaning, which was Jia Xu's removal from his post. Advisor Ju Shou would be promoted to Chief Secretary.

Consequently, the Administrative Mentor Court would receive a huge injection of new blood.

Ouyang Shuo had set a simple principle: anyone chosen for the Planet Hope expedition could not hold a position in the Empire, as that would cause chaos on both sides.

The only person that could influence both worlds would be Ouyang Shuo.

In the future, when Ouyang Shuo moved a batch of talents from the game world out to Planet Hope, the Great Xia Empire would have a number of vacancies for newbies to be promoted into.

This would form a positive cycle, which solved the official promotion bottleneck problem.

Killing two birds with one stone.

In the end, the Great Xia in the game world was a talent production base for Planet Hope.

Apart from the Cabinet, a batch of officials were removed and added to the list of people that would go to Planet Hope.

The two most powerful ones of the bunch were Internal Affairs Minister Wei Yang and Financial minister Fan Li. Their successors were their respective deputies, Di Renjie and Cui Yingyu. They transition steadily.

As for Xiao He and Du Ruhui, they would continue to defend Great Xia.

The exploration of Planet Hope would be like the 1st year of Gaia. They would begin from the smallest village. Naturally, there was no need for him to bring too many famous ministers.

It would be a waste of their talents, as too many of them together might not be able to handle the basic matters properly. Hence, the main force consisted of basic officials in charge of basic matters.

After round after round of evaluation and selection, all those chosen were loyal to the Empire and to Ouyang Shuo. Furthermore, they were all exceptions talents.

If they were not, Ouyang Shuo would not waste so much to instantiate all of them.

Out of the eight warzone commanders, Ouyang Shuo only selected two to bring with him. One was Baiqi and the other was Han Xin.

The Africa warzone commander position left behind by Baiqi would be taken over by Meng Tian. Meng Tian was also from Qin like Baiqi, so it could be called a passing on of the torch.

Furthermore, Meng Tian was also a God General and could support the Africa warzone.

The marshal of the Wolf legion corps would be Luo Shixin from the 4th legion of the Dragon legion corps. He had served in the Dragon legion corps for a long time and had learned a lot from Baiqi. As a result, he was a good choice for leading the Wolf legion corps.

The America warzone commander position left behind by Han Xin would be taken over by Imperial Palace Guard marshal Xu Da. He was a God General, and it would not be a problem for him to take charge of the America warzone.

Deputy marshal Xie Siyun would be promoted to marshal of the Imperial Palace Guards.

Apart from Baiqi and Han Xin, Ouyang Shuo selected four more generals to proceed together with him to Planet Hope. The reason for this was simple; they would be the force to go against the top beasts.

The four were South Asia warzone legion corps marshal Ran Min, Martial Management Division commander Er'Lai, North America legion corps marshal Xue Rengui, and North Africa legion corps marshal Chang Yuchun.

The positions they left behind were filled in by Wei Zhang, Lin Jing, Cao Hong, and Pei Xingyan respectively.