Half an hour later, at exactly two o'clock in the afternoon,
Outside Barak City,
The founding ceremony was held as scheduled.
Under the gaze of 80,000 soldiers, countless civilians, and more than twenty high-level figures from various major forces, and even some Divinities from the God Realm,
Yuan Tiangang, holding a yellow robe embroidered with nine-colored divine dragons, gently draped it over Nangong Lingyun.
Then, he loudly denounced the noble class for their exorbitant taxes and extravagant waste, their exploitation and plunder of the people under their rule, their casual killing, treating them like pigs and dogs, causing popular resentment to boil over. Tianxia had long suffered, yearning for a wise ruler.
Then, he performed three bows and nine prostrations, tearfully and sincerely begging Nangong Lingyun to save this World.
Angel Yan held a tray with three items on it: a jade seal, a sword, and a golden crown,
Representing civil rights, military power, and imperial power respectively.
She recounted the glorious achievements Nangong Lingyun had made along the way: developing the Body Martial Soul, creating Kaiyuan Academy, perfecting the Spirit theory, and exposing the nobles' conspiracy to harm commoner geniuses.
The recently occurred event of violently beating Limit Douluo and God King inheritor Tang Chen was even more emphasized, repeatedly flogging the corpse.
Finally, she also performed three bows and nine prostrations, believing that only an unparalleled figure like Nangong Lingyun, possessing all nine virtues of extraordinary, heroic, brave, resolute, benevolent, righteous, wise, trustworthy, and courageous, could accomplish such great and difficult tasks as overthrowing the old system, eliminating malpractices, and changing Tianxia.
The two pleaded with earnest anticipation,
"A saint as benevolent, Goodness, and valiant as you surely can't bear to watch the people continue to suffer, right?"
The third time, 80,000 soldiers, along with the Balak Kingdom's royal family, courtiers, generals, some Spirit Masters, and a few civilians, all knelt down and swore allegiance.
Expressing that they would not believe, recognize, or follow anyone other than Nangong Lingyun,
And that for Your Majesty, for the Empire, for that great dream, they could spare no effort, including their own Life.
After the three entreaties, Nangong Lingyun had no choice but to helplessly accept the throne.
The entire process of the founding ceremony referenced both the local customs of Douluo and added some unique elements from his previous Life.
It lasted for more than two hours, with a full nine major items and more than thirty minor sections.
Ascending the throne was only the first step.
Next,
Nangong Lingyun also needed to formally announce the country's name and his imperial title as Emperor, read the founding proclamation, declare his governing program,
And grant titles to his officials, establishing the civil and military systems and official system.
Among them, the country's name was Holy Light of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, abbreviated as Celestial Empire or Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and his imperial title was Grand Emperor Zhi Ren Zhi Shan/Xinyi Zhi Yong/Divine Might Spirit Martial, abbreviated as Grand Emperor Wu or Grand Emperor Shenwu.
Governing program: Break the aristocratic hereditary system centered on bloodline inheritance, and select truly outstanding talents through the civil and military examinations, promoting only the talented.
In addition, there were also equal land distribution, light corvée, low taxes, compulsory education, ruling the country according to law, the crime of killing civilians without cause, and a twenty-level military and civilian peerage system, and so on.
In terms of titles and rewards, Yuan Tiangang was appointed Grand Minister of Works, enfeoffed as Marquis Wenzheng, in charge of political affairs and financial power; Angel Yan was appointed Grand Marshal, enfeoffed as Marquis Wuan, in charge of military power and Spirit Masters; Qian Daoliu was appointed Grand Tutor, responsible for criminal law and supervision, temporarily without a title.
The Three Dukes were the most esteemed among the ministers, ranked first-class.
Below them were more than twenty Nine Ministers: Grand Minister of Ceremonies (equivalent to the Ministry of Rites), Grand Commandant (Ministry of War), Grand Preceptor (Ministry of Personnel), Grand Protector (Ministry of Works), Grand Master (Ministry of Revenue), Grand Tutor (Ministry of Commerce),
Shaofu (National Treasury), Tingwei (Ministry of Justice), Dianke (Foreign Affairs), Attendant, Shangshu, Doctor (Emperor's Secretary and Advisor), plus Grand Herald, Dali Temple, Guangluxun, the Four Garrison Generals, the Four Expedition Generals, and so on.
All were second-class.
However, due to the current lack of manpower, only a few positions have been appointed.
Among them, the former Balak Kingdom King was enfeoffed as Marquis Xinyi, serving as Grand Minister of Ceremonies, one of the new Empire's four founding marquises.
The remaining person was Lou Gao, Marquis Gongqiao, who successfully combined blacksmithing techniques, elementary spirit tool manufacturing techniques, and firearms perfectly.
In Nangong Lingyun's version of the twenty-level peerage, the lower four levels were Esquire, the middle four levels were Husband, and the upper four levels were Minister, each four levels further divided into Lower, Middle, Upper, and Great.
The top-level part, from high to low, was in turn King, Duke, Marquis, and Earl, four classes with eight levels, each with an exclusive title.
Among them, Kings, Dukes, Marquises, and Earls whose titles were auspicious terms were higher than those whose titles were place names.
The Four Great Marquises were all Upper Marquises, ranked sixteenth level.
...
The first few processes of the ceremony progressed extremely quickly, often completing one item in three to five minutes,
But after forty minutes, it officially proceeded to the seventh item, which was also today's highlight, the military parade.
"It's coming."
On the side of the altar, in the guest seating area, Ning Fengzhi's eyes suddenly lit up.
Among everyone, he and Tang San were the most interested in the firearms that Nangong Lingyun had created,
If Kaiyuan Sect did not intend to establish an Empire, or even if it did but still relied on the nobles, he would definitely deepen cooperation at all costs.
Unfortunately…
With Angel Yan's command, a long war horn and earth-shattering war drums suddenly sounded around,
The eight military formations changed their formations in turn, and when they reached the altar position, they passed by at a goosestep.
The booming footsteps were extremely neat and uniform, and just happened to coincide with the rhythm of the drums, instantly making the onlookers' blood boil.
The two items of the military parade, inspection and martial performance,
Among them, the inspection referred to the marching parade of the previous Life, coupled with specially designed heavy armor, the visual perception was extremely shocking.
The main target was ordinary people,
Many of them did not understand the strength of truly powerful Spirit Masters, and they were also in awe of the army enough,
Seeing this scene, their hearts must be extremely excited.
The martial performance, on the other hand, was mainly aimed at dignitaries like Ning Fengzhi and Xue Ye.
If these people were not allowed to witness the power of firearms with their own eyes, they would always be superior to ordinary people in their hearts, treating them as nothing.
The general in charge of the martial performance waved his hand,
"Bring the prisoners."
Several teams of soldiers in armor immediately escorted rows of prisoners from the distant houses.
Each person had an iron sign hanging around their neck, with their crimes, as well as their respective Spirits and spirit power levels written on it.
Yes, these criminals were all Spirit Masters, specially prepared to test and demonstrate the power of firearms today.
The moment the prisoners appeared, there was a commotion in the guest seating area,
No one had expected that Nangong Lingyun would prepare to adopt such a sensational way of "martial performance".
And when they saw the words on the iron sign, almost every face became extremely ugly.
"Level 38 attack system War Spirit Elder XXX, accumulated slaughter of more than a thousand civilians, death penalty!"
"Level 46 defense system Spirit Ancestor XXX, plundering civilians to sell as slaves, death penalty!"
"Level 29 control system War Spirit Elder XXX, poisoning water sources, causing hundreds of deaths, death penalty!"
"Level 51 support system Spirit King XXXX, likes to eat human flesh, has been going on for forty-four years, during which countless civilians have been harmed, death penalty!"
...