Chapter 1 The Nascent Stage

Amidst the hustle and bustle, Federal Express was successfully founded. Although it had not yet officially started operating, it had already established a preliminary team, started recruiting personnel, began employee training, and initiated various actions that seemed incredible to many businesses in this era as the new year approached. All Federal Express vehicles, whether passenger or freight, were painted a bright blue, with the Federal Express logo and name on the front and rear of each vehicle. All Federal Express employees, except for some management personnel, wore the same blue uniforms, with the same prominent Federal Express logo and font on the back. The cuffs, shoulders, and collars of the uniforms all had clear markings to indicate the employee's rank. The requirements for employee appearance and demeanor surpassed even the military's standards for military appearance and discipline. In this era, Federal Express was not only the first company in history to have a complete visual identity design but also the first organization to explicitly define "Responsibility, Honor, Service" as its core corporate culture. Everything was too much like the military, too in line with the style of these veterans. Even during the trial operation, the Federal Express passenger-freight mixed transport team had scouts thirty li ahead, a rearguard twenty li behind, and even vanguard troops on both wings constantly probing and retracting... All of this made many businesses eagerly anticipate Federal Express's official launch, scheduled for February.

However, this was not the most interesting topic. During this period, the most eye-catching thing was the women's battle team formed by Tan Weixin. Rather than being persuaded by Chi Lei, it was more accurate to say that Chi Li, who had been idle at home for a long time, had finally emerged from her own state of mind. While Tan Weixin was entangled in various miscellaneous affairs, Chi Li was actually the one running this inevitably attention-grabbing team. In addition to Huang Wan, the daughter of Situ Huang Xuping, the team was successively joined by Zhuo Shuyun, the daughter of General Zhuo Mang, who was already the mother of two children; Liu Xiangyuan, the best guzheng player in Danyang; Cao Mo, the wife of Tan Weixin's guard captain, Liu Yong, and a retired heroine known as "Golden Silk Sword"; Luo Lin, the daughter of the Minister of Personnel, known for her excellent poetry and prose... In the end, this team almost swept up all the qualified noblewomen and celebrities in Danyang, becoming a super-large salon-like group. During activities, not everyone liked to command troops; instead, they divided the work and cooperated, with some even specializing in cooking snacks and soups to reward those female generals who were racking their brains to create strategies and tactics.

However, in several battles, the women's battle team's performance was quite impressive. After narrowly losing to the Ye Family United Team, they surprisingly overturned two teams organized spontaneously by experienced Go enthusiasts in Danyang, who had decent records. Then, in a fierce battle with the Imperial Guards, they forced a draw with Chi Yun's Imperial Guards on the ninth day through dense defense and almost perfect mobilization and allocation of resources. For a time, they were unparalleled in popularity.

As the topic of the women's battle team began to gradually cool down, the marriage ceremony between the ruler of Dongping and Princess Bailian of Chunnan was imminent.

On this day, Minister of Rites Kang Zhen and Crown Prince of Dongping led a large group of people out of the city to welcome the rather large wedding procession from Chunnan. Tan Weixin, however, stayed at home, sharing Zeng Man's report on Princess Bailian with Ye Tao for entertainment.

"How is it? Does this Princess Bailian's style remind you of anything?" Tan Weixin asked with a smile.

After Ye Tao finished reading the documents, he casually put them aside and said, "Isn't she just one of those inexplicable celebrities? There's a reason why this Princess Bailian can't get married."

Tan Weixin shrugged and said, "Once she's in Dongping, she won't have a choice. While the wedding procession is here, we still have to show some face. Once the wedding procession leaves, hehe, let's see if she's still so arrogant."

To show Chunnan's emphasis on this marriage, the specifications of the wedding procession sent by Chunnan were truly astonishing. The younger brother of the ruler of Chunnan, Princess Bailian's uncle, Prince Juxian Chang Hongquan, was the chief of the wedding procession. Although the four major countries on the continent—Dongping, Xiling, Chunnan, and Beiliao—had all annexed many previously enfeoffed vassal states during their formation and development, forming the current situation, the rulers of these four countries had not added any titles to themselves under any name, but instead continued to use the enfeoffments from the period of unification. Currently, only Chunnan had two coexisting princes. Although the Juxian Prince lineage had never participated in politics, it had considerable influence within Chunnan. Prince Juxian Chang Hongquan had considerable insight into political affairs. Although he did not handle practical matters himself, the major decisions made by Chunnan over the past decade were all closely related to him. The marriage alliance with Dongping and the promotion of an alliance between Dongping and Chunnan in the near future was first proposed by him. With Chang Hongquan as the head of this wedding envoy, it was enough to highlight the importance Chunnan attached to this marriage alliance.

The accompanying lineup of officials could also be described as luxurious. Chunnan and Dongping differed greatly in their government structures. Within Dongping, the daily affairs of government were handled by the Six Ministries. The four positions of Grand General, Grand Commandant, Minister of Works, and Minister of Education did not have specific duties but were assigned areas of responsibility based on the situation. Usually, they served as high-level advisors, providing the ruler with various decision-making opinions. Once assigned a task, the scope of their influence was determined based on the specific situation. During wartime, the Grand General, as the commander-in-chief of all Dongping's armies, could sometimes even override all officials and was only responsible to the ruler of Dongping. This strange political structure was probably closely related to Dongping's historically flexible and free political atmosphere. Chunnan, on the other hand, was different. Chunnan was a land of ritual and music, and its emphasis on etiquette and hierarchy far exceeded that of Dongping. The government structure was roughly based on the Grand General and the Prime Minister as the supreme leaders of military and civil officials, respectively, followed by the clearly defined Three Dukes and Six Ministries. This time, accompanying Prince Juxian were the Vice Ministers of four of the Six Ministries, equivalent to the level of Deputy Minister. As for the other subordinate officials, there were dozens of them.

The three thousand soldiers responsible for guarding the envoy were led by General Annan Zhu Biao. The accompanying generals and officers also had ranks higher than those of officers of the same number in Chunnan. To make the envoy appear majestic, these three thousand guards were selected from the three most elite troops in Chunnan: the Imperial Guards, the Leopard Cavalry, and the Black Iron Cavalry, with one thousand soldiers from each force. Although Chunnan had been at peace for a long time, and none of these three thousand men had ever been on the battlefield, they were selected from elite troops with excellent equipment and good training, and they had undergone a month of special training in etiquette. These three thousand guards looked truly majestic.

In addition to the guards and officials, the first group of people following Princess Bailian and the envoy to Dongping also included a considerable number of musicians, dancers, chefs and pastry chefs, tailors, embroiderers, gardeners, and other specialists, totaling more than two hundred people. And this was only the initial action by Chunnan to strengthen "exchanges" with Dongping; it was specifically designed to serve Princess Bailian and to please the ruler of Dongping, Tan Xiaopei.

Shortly after the envoy arrived in Danyang, a team of about five hundred people, including many acrobats and opera troupes, would also arrive in Danyang. It was said that this was also Prince Juxian's idea. Overall, Prince Juxian's thinking was quite advanced, and he had the idea of turning a marriage ceremony into an economic and cultural exchange activity between the two countries at all levels.

While his subordinates were methodically settling down in Golden Valley Garden, beginning to use it as a residence for the core members of the envoy for a period of time, Prince Juxian Chang Hongquan was listening to Luo Qin and Song Yu report on the various things they had done in Danyang during this period. It was definitely not Prince Juxian's intention to have Luo Qin openly win over people from all walks of life in Dongping, demonstrating Chunnan's magnanimity and expressing Chunnan's attitude of not relying on Dongping. After hearing that Shangbao Hall, under the direction of Luo Qin and Song Yu, had been completely defeated by Ye Family Workshop in the three rounds of technical competitions, and that they were still completely clueless as to how Ye Tao had made such things, Chang Hongquan sighed and said, "Is this the King's intention? Since we do need their help, putting on such a posture is counterproductive. Many people in Dongping are now very disapproving of this marriage alliance."