Chapter 144: Supreme Economic Authority, and the Opportunity for Legal Status Integration!

[Anchoring Major Historical Event: Jiang Chong frames Crown Prince Liu Ju using witchcraft and sorcery.]
[During Emperor Wu's late-year illness, Jiang Chong incited the Hu sorcerer Tan He to deceive the emperor, saying: "There is powerful malevolent Qi within the imperial palace; unless it is eradicated, Your Majesty's illness will never be cured." ]
[Emperor Wu believed him.]
[Because Jiang Chong bore a deep grudge against Crown Prince Liu Ju, he seized the opportunity to frame the prince, leading men into the prince's palace to unearth a wooden figurine he had buried there in advance.]
[Liu Ju was unable to clear his name, gripped by terror and at a loss for words, so he mobilized troops intending to execute Jiang Chong. Instead, he was falsely accused by Jiang Chong's faction of launching a rebellion.]
[The armies of the emperor and the crown prince engaged in a fierce and bloody melee in Chang'an for five days, resulting in tens of thousands of casualties.]
[In the end, Crown Prince Liu Ju was defeated, fled, and hanged himself. Empress Wei Zifu—who had married into the imperial family with the most lavish dowry in history and the "Twin Pillars of the Empire"—also committed suicide, and the Wei family's external relatives fell into permanent decline. History records this as the "Witchcraft Calamity."]
[Usage Instructions:]
[Bury the paulownia wood figurine in the palace of a crown prince or imperial heir, and the target will be cursed to death by the resentment of the Witchcraft Calamity contained within the figurine.]
[The stronger the target's power, the longer they will hold out.]
[If a skilled carpenter sets up an altar and performs rituals, the time to death can be shortened to three days for lower-tier three targets, seven days for mid-tier three targets, and at least one month for upper-tier three targets.]

Wang Cheng instantly experienced a flash of enlightenment:
"Mao Haifeng failed in one scheme only to hatch another.
Having failed to use Senior Sister to kill me, he turned around and allied with the pristine gentry to have 'Wang Fugui' bury this omen-talisman that killed Liu Ju into Litan Hall.
While cursing 'Wang澄' to death, they will arrest 'Wang Fugui' as a scapegoat, implicate the diplomatic mission, and fundamentally resolve the court's problem of reopening the maritime trade ban.
A two-birds-with-one-stone scheme indeed, quite a good one. If your plan hadn't been overly obsessed with perfection, causing a flaw in the transport link, I might have actually fallen into your trap.
Now, this treasure belongs to me!"

Spiritual light flickered across the witchcraft paulownia wood figurine, resonating with the two Daoist registers within Wang Cheng's body as if it had always belonged to him.
Perhaps to others, cursing a crown prince to death using the Witchcraft Calamity was the greatest value of this talisman.
But not to Wang Cheng.
In his eyes, the greatest value of the paulownia wood figurine was actually the master who created it—the Commandant of Waterways, Jiang Chong!

Earlier, when Wang Cheng was breaking through to the sixth tier while holding the concurrent posts of [White Water Lang] and [Appraisal Lang], he had already gained some insight.
These two naturally compatible official Daoist registers could fuse with each other, transforming into a completely new official position.
Unfortunately, until now, the [Four Seas Subduing Evil Register] and [Golden Toad Suppressing Treasure Register] had only fused partially before grinding to a halt, seemingly lacking some kind of crucial element.
Wang Cheng had once consulted Yun Xiao, and the dragon girl, who possessed a profound family heritage, offered her own advice:
"Many modern three-class official Daoist registers actually originate from official positions established by ancient states.
It's just that some of those official positions might have been extremely powerful at the time, but because their existence was too short, or they were replaced by other official posts during institutional reforms, they ultimately vanished in the long river of history and failed to be passed down.
You must try to sense what that new official Daoist register actually is.
Then look for omen-talismans strongly associated with the counterpart, especially items representing official status and identity, such as the Mountain-Rummaging Seal, the Gold-Touching Amulet, the Recumbent Tiger Waist Tag, and so on (Chapter 114)."

The stronger the correlation between the omen-talisman used for the inauguration ceremony and the official Daoist register, the better.
It is best to trace the source back to find the earliest representative figure of a certain ancient profession—you could call them the founding patriarch of that lineage. Only such omen-talismans could maximize the success rate.

At that moment, Wang Cheng had a sudden realization: the new register that the [White Water Lang] and [Appraisal Lang] could eventually fuse into was precisely the one once held by Jiang Chong, representing the supreme economic power of an empire—the Commandant of Waterways!

Wang Cheng's heart pounded with excitement:
"There are primarily two kinds of power in the world: one is political power, and the other is economic power.
In Shenzhou, in the Great Zhao Empire, the Daoist register sitting at the pinnacle of political power is undoubtedly the [Master of State and Altars], along with the [Dragon Descendant] directly beneath it.
An official Daoist register representing supreme economic power has not yet appeared.
However, anyone who understands the functions of the Commandant of Waterways will know that once this official Daoist register appears, it will inevitably become the most formidable contender for supreme economic power."

————

The Commandant of Waterways was the official in the Han dynasty who managed the imperial finances.
Established in the second year of the Yuanding era of Emperor Wu of Han (115 BC), the Commandant of Waterways oversaw subordinate offices such as the Bell Official, Copper Refining Official, Mountain and Forest Official, and Technical Official. He managed the Upper Forest Park, while concurrently presiding over tax revenues, the income and expenditure of imperial finances, and coin casting.

He directly controlled the Waterways Treasury—one of the three major treasuries of the Han dynasty—managing imperial industries including the Upper Forest Park, the nation's state-run commerce and industry, and commercial and agricultural taxes.
While the Grand Minister of Agriculture collected 4 billion coins in poll taxes and agricultural taxes, the Waterways Treasury directly held 2.5 billion copper coins!

The Commandant of Waterways was also responsible for issuing currency.
In the fourth year of the Yuanding era, Emperor Wu reformed the monetary system, issuing an order to ban commanderies and principalities from minting coins. The acquired copper was transported to the capital, and the three offices under the Commandant of Waterways—the Bell Official, Copper Refining Official, and Technical Official—were tasked with casting the new Five-Grain Coins for nationwide circulation.
These coins were also known as "Three-Office Coins," possessing high quality and extremely wide circulation. They were also one of the Five-Emperor coins originally required for the [Five Emperors' Golden Coin Sword].
All 28 billion Five-Grain Coins of the late Western Han dynasty were produced and issued by the Commandant of Waterways. These coins remained in use until the founding of the Great Tang, making them one of the most successful currencies in the history of Shenzhou's currency.

Naturally, the Commandant of Waterways never relied on a salary to live; he held the largest source of revenue in both Han dynasties himself, a lucrative post where even trying to be an honest official was difficult.
Even the greatest corrupt official of later generations would turn green with envy at the sight of it.

In addition to this, he had under his command eight deputies and twelve lieutenants: concurrently safeguarding imperial property, minting coins, producing weapons, bronze ware, lacquerware, shipbuilding, managing tribute transport, administering public fields, raising wild beasts, water control, and so on.
This aligned perfectly with the duties of the White Water Lang and Appraisal Lang!

————

Wang Cheng gripped the ancient paulownia wood figurine tightly in his hand, clearly sensing that both the [Four Seas Subduing Evil Register] and [Golden Toad Suppressing Treasure Register] were throbbing with joy.
Vaguely, they began to resume their fusion, and his smile grew even more brilliant:
"Simply put, the most formidable function of the Commandant of Waterways is being the 'Governor of the Royal Mint,' a colleague of Lord Niu across the ocean—no, with power far greater than his.
In later generations, it would be equivalent to the Governor of the Central Bank, plus one-third of the Minister of Finance, plus the Commissioner of the State Administration of Taxation!
With every move, he has the potential to influence a nation's commerce and economy. By what right can he not contend for the highest economic power in Shenzhou?
Of course, the combat capability of this official Daoist register cannot be ignored either.
After all, Jiang Chong's combat record is verifiable: he genuinely killed the crown prince of the Han dynasty's most martial emperor, along with the empress and a large group of the Wei family's external relatives as a bonus!
If placed in the Western nations, its might would be no less inferior to their Great Revolution! The guillotine!
Two thousand years ago, when commerce was far from developed, the Commandant of Waterways could possess such energy.
If placed in the present era, when international maritime trade flourishes and the entire world is connected by shipping and sea trade, what kind of magnificent might would it wield?
That is truly a living God of Wealth in the mortal world!
If one day all the kings and emperors of the world are overthrown and a constitutional monarchy is established, would there be potential? Wouldn't that be ascending to divinity on the spot, breaking through the realm above the first tier?
Good fortune, my good fortune has arrived!"

The grand trends of the world surged forward; those who followed them prospered, and those who opposed them perished.
Wang Cheng felt that as a "sea merchant," he had inadvertently grasped the pulse of the era, and he felt increasingly grateful to the clever minds of the pristine gentry.
Last time, when he sold off the [Lantern Artisan] who was fighting for the elixir of immortality, he obtained a considerable amount of "financial luck" from the Four Seas Currency, but it had never been converted into wealth according to the thing he desired most in his heart.
Aside from the money he had acquired from Mao Haifeng and Luowen Long over the past two days—which were the fruits of his hard (trickery and deception) labor—he had not expected it to finally manifest in this item.
It could be said that the [Witchcraft Paulownia Wood Figurine] was the natal sacred treasure most compatible with Wang Cheng's future, and its prospects were boundless.
He even half-suspected that even if the carpenter successfully used this treasure against himself, it might not necessarily curse to death a reserve "Commandant of Waterways" like him.

"What a pity, Crown Prince Liu Ju was posthumously honored by his own grandson, Emperor Xuan of Han, merely as Crown Prince Li (The Abusive), unlike our dynasty's Emperor Zhaowu, who was forced to posthumously honor his own birth father as emperor.
The historical influence of the paulownia wood figurine also stops at the level of crown prince; it can only be considered a treasure of a single province, powerless against emperors and powerful living ghosts and deities."

Wang Cheng then laughed self-deprecatingly:
"One should not bite off more than one can chew; it is already enough for the time being."

He lowered his head to look at Carpenter Chen, who was bound hand and foot on the ground.
Having learned of the carpenter's amplifying effect on the paulownia wood figurine, Wang Cheng was suddenly in no rush to kill him.
He squatted down, patted the carpenter's shoulder, pulled out a large thunder-ball, and smiled at him with nuclear-grade amiability:
"Come on, let's make a fair trade.
Use your own life in exchange for your absolute loyalty—will you make this trade or not?"

Since he already controlled the carpenter's life and death—without even needing to pay the blood-money of at least tens of thousands of incense-money ritual coins—he was going to buy his remaining years with bare words alone.
At this moment, where would the carpenter dare to utter even half a word of refusal?
He nodded repeatedly like a chick pecking at rice:
"I'll trade, I'll trade. This trade is extremely fair."

The moment the transaction was struck, his gaze emptied for a fraction, and deep within his pupils, two coin-eyes emerged.
When he looked at Wang Cheng again, his eyes were thoroughly filled with "loyalty"—absolute, blind loyalty!
Much like when he had originally purchased the official title of "Hereditary Hundred-Man Commander," it had fundamentally distorted his cognition.
There would never be the trouble of the ordinary [Appraisal Lang] where transactions were guaranteed by oneself, yet someone could still breach the contract, requiring them to manually punish the perjurer.

Subsequently, Carpenter Chen took the initiative to contact Jiang Wen渊, reporting to him that Wang Fugui had been successfully captured and that everything was proceeding smoothly according to plan.
Receiving instructions from him, he immediately brought the paulownia wood figurine to be buried inside Crown Prince Yi's Litan Hall, hastening to set up the altar and perform the ritual.

Ending the communication, Wang Cheng repeated Jiang Wen渊's order to the carpenter:
"Very well, immediately bury the paulownia wood figurine inside Heir Yi's Qingxiang Hall, and hurry up to set up the altar and perform the ritual!"
"As you command!"