Chapter 2043 - 2041: Fang Zheng Travels Incognito (I’m So Sleepy, What Should I Do?)

"Woo—————!"

Accompanied by the loud sound of the steam whistle, the steamship slowly started on the canal. Fang Zheng stood at the bow, looking at the beautiful scenery in front of him, and couldn’t help but feel like he’d crossed into a world with some bizarre setting again.

Under Fang Zheng’s design, after more than a hundred years of effort, the Han Dynasty now had the foundations of an industrial society, including steamships, trains, and Zeppelins.

Especially the Zeppelins. China never lacked clever people, and indeed, someone thought of using Zeppelins to open routes for transporting people and materials, thus the world’s first state-run airline was born in response.

Of course, even though Fang Zheng had drastically altered this world beyond recognition, some things remained deeply ingrained and unchanged. For instance, the citizens of the Great Han still considered their country the Central Kingdom, the Celestial Upper Kingdom, the center of the world, with other places being barbaric lands, showing no willingness to explore outward.

Especially after being industrialized by Fang Zheng, this willingness weakened even further. Imagine, you could take a train in the Central Plains to quickly move from one city to another, but to go to those wild borderlands, there’s nothing, and you’d have to laboriously travel by horse-drawn carriage... without proper educational facilities, nor medical resources... who would want to go out and pioneer without any good reason?

This left Fang Zheng quite at a loss.

By the way, although there were also attempts to create automobiles in this world, a major problem remained unsolved.

That is, the wheels.

Refining rubber was even more difficult than Fang Zheng imagined, and at the current level of steam technology, formal wheels couldn’t be made either. The "cars" were using wheels made by wrapping a thick layer of animal hide over wooden tires and fixing them with iron hoops... It’s easy to imagine how uncomfortable that ride would be.

Moreover, this world had not yet miniaturized the internal combustion engine technology. Although ancient China’s ability to forge and cast iron was strong, the materials needed for this power system couldn’t be developed overnight, even with Fang Zheng himself leading the climb up the tech tree. So far, the steam power systems here were extremely large, and the machinery too, like the steamship Fang Zheng was now on, and those trains, were about one and a half times larger than the "authentic" ones from the original world...

So in the end, automobiles have mostly fizzled out, but fortunately, tanks were eventually tinkered out.

Thus, Fang Zheng now stood on the deck, looking at the brightly lit cities along the riverbanks under the night sky. He saw a Martial Hero dressed in flowing robes with a Longsword on his back galloping down the street on horseback, then dismounting, drenched in sweat, to tie the reins to a hitching post before quickly heading to a public phone booth across the street. He opened the door and entered, dropping a coin...

Simultaneously, behind him, Fang Zheng saw a blood-soaked female ghost staring intently at the Martial Hero outside the phone booth, emanating immense resentment. The Martial Hero, meanwhile, was on the phone saying something while tightly gripping a Talisman in his hand.

Finally, he seemed to notice something, slowly turning his head... Upon seeing the female ghost behind him, the Martial Hero turned deathly pale and screamed loudly. But soon, he clutched his throat, struggling as if unable to breathe. Then, his body slumped, and he collapsed dead in the phone booth. The female ghost outside looked extremely satisfied, as if her great revenge had been exacted, and then Black and White Impermanence appeared out of thin air, shackling the female ghost and taking her away.

"Sigh..."

Seeing this, Fang Zheng couldn’t help but sigh.

What exactly is this, Immortal Hero, Cultivation, Science Fiction, Supernatural, or Martial Hero?

He couldn’t figure it out himself.

As for the matter of the female ghost seeking revenge, Fang Zheng didn’t bother to intervene. When setting up the Underworld in this world, he had referenced his experiences in the World of the Immortal Sword. In fact, this world is never fair. Just take modern society, similar incidents often happen where a juvenile under 14 commits murder but can’t be convicted because of age, so they just end up with fines and compensation.

Such news would surely anger the bystanders, cursing the injustice of the law, but laws can’t do much about it. Law is for protecting the majority, it can’t just punish an entire group to catch the one in ten thousand bad ones, right?

But Fang Zheng had a different solution.

Yes, the Living Realm’s laws might be unable to deal with you, but what about the Underworld? In fact, when setting it up, Fang Zheng combined his past life experiences and specifically designed a system, that if a criminal was harshly punished by the law, then it’d be fine.

However, if a criminal exploited loopholes in the law or used their wealth and status to reduce or escape punishment, then the Underworld could intervene.

The case of the female ghost killing the Martial Hero is one such example, as the saying goes, "What goes around, comes around." If the Living Realm can’t punish your crimes, the Underworld can. From the Evil Spirit pursuing one’s life to a whole family being wiped out, to dying without descendants or reduced lifespan... the Underworld had plenty of ways to exact revenge.

Because of this synergetic law enforcement between the Yin-Yang worlds, this world was exceptionally peaceful and tranquil. Though those haunted by Evil Spirits could find a Taoist for a Talisman, justice still demands a life for a life, actions have consequences, and this principle was embedded as the highest priority rule in this world by Fang Zheng, from which no one could escape.

If any Taoists attempted to assist, they would be cursed with the same grudges and meet unfortunate ends too.

Frankly, Fang Zheng sometimes wondered how the outside world was doing now. The Huns were thoroughly crushed and even lost their land, and now the criminals most feared being sent to cultivate potatoes in Siberia.

But what about other places?

For instance, Southeast Asia? Korea? Central Asia? Europe? And what about Japan now?

Fang Zheng really wanted to see for himself, but unfortunately, as the Emperor, he couldn’t leave arbitrarily, and although starting a great era of exploration nationwide would be thrilling, the Han Dynasty’s strength hadn’t yet swollen to the point of outward expansion. But Fang Zheng wasn’t in a rush; he could afford to wait a century or two until the nation’s strength was sufficient for external development.

This time Fang Zheng left the palace in incognito—a covert outing, if you will.

If Qianlong could go down to Jiangnan, why couldn’t he?

The accomplishments he achieved could easily hang all the Qing Emperors for a beating, couldn’t they?

Worth mentioning, like Emperor Yang of Sui, Fang Zheng also constructed the Grand Canal, of course under much different circumstances. He didn’t need to draft countless laborers to death, inviting heaven’s wrath like the former did—if not, what’s the point of industrializing?!

After founding the country, Fang Zheng established state-owned construction companies for various infrastructure projects, completely eliminating the need for the kind of forced labor employment other emperors relied on. In fact, in this era, these construction companies became quite popular among civilians since the principle of iron rice bowl was implemented, making them highly sought jobs that the civilians scrambled to get into.

What? Hard labor? Aren’t you exerting yourself tilling fields at home too? A stable job with an iron bowl is what really matters!

Under these circumstances, Fang Zheng’s Grand Canal was successfully completed without stirring up public resentment or social instability. Not to mention, the canal he built was longer and wider than the one in Emperor Yang of Sui’s era...

See, climbing the tech tree is top priority.

But it’s understandable, not every Emperor is like Fang Zheng, having a thousand years of patience to play civilization games.

This time, Fang Zheng planned on traveling incognito to those border regions, partly to understand the people’s situation, and partly to relax.

Unconcerned at all about accidentally encountering a Xia Yuhe by Daming Lake.

Nor worried about a Violet coming to find him to recognize her father.

As for leaving and possibly encountering trouble, he wasn’t worried at all. After so many years, everyone acknowledged Fang Zheng as a Celestial Being reincarnate, with no hesitation—considering he’s been sitting on the throne for over a century without changing his appearance, there’s no room for doubt, right?

And before leaving, Fang Zheng also left a Divine Sense in the palace, so if any decisions needed his verdict, he could immediately return. Therefore, he had no worries about any trouble arising from his departure.

The third reason for Fang Zheng’s incognito visit was that he heard from the Carefree Palace’s Four Sacred Beasts that numerous foreign Yokai had recently appeared in the south, seemingly intent on establishing themselves, prompting Fang Zheng to go see what was happening.

Given Fang Zheng’s "Predestined by Heaven" setup for this world with Immortal Hero attributes, many already extraordinary animals transformed into Yokai, like the Four Sacred Beasts in Fang Zheng’s Carefree Palace actually transitioning towards the Four Sacred Beasts, and in the wild forests, many animals seemed to have gained sentience as well.

Of course, Fang Zheng issued no post-foundation law against gaining spiritual essence, but he did have his Carefree Palace’s Demon Beasts round up any creatures that developed Spirit Wisdom, establishing a force specialized in governing them.

The Demon Beasts within the Han Territory could be managed, but those outside weren’t under Fang Zheng’s jurisdiction.

Thus, upon hearing that foreign Yokai were sneaking in, Fang Zheng naturally had to investigate thoroughly. Foreign Yokai too? How did they come about? Could it be a byproduct of splitting the Yin-Yang realms himself? If so, he’d need to set some regulations to prevent them from causing chaos here, right?

With that, Fang Zheng took the steamship, and journeyed to Suzhou and Hangzhou.