9. The Hole in the Commercial Empire
Among the precarious Four Kingdoms, the Youhan Dynasty was the most special, in a word: diao (badass).
Internally stable, with an economy that surpassed all the other kingdoms, it was the only one, besides the mysterious single-character dynasty, that could rival the major sects of the Hundred Paths Mountain.
If this country had any strange ideas, it would surely put them into action. And this strange idea was to unify the Four Kingdoms and establish a grand, unified dynasty that could set its own rules.
In the novel, the experiences of the Four Kingdoms gave it this opportunity.
The Heartflame Empire’s royal family was slaughtered, its ruling class almost completely reshuffled, leaving only cowards in hiding and incompetent children. The entire country was on the verge of collapse, needing only a small push to fall.
The Baiyao Dynasty had also undergone a coup, its internal power structure unstable, with many having their own ideas. And with Baiyao Sheng’s rise to power tainted by many dark secrets, if these were exposed, the internal public opinion would surely trigger a greater turmoil.
Although the fourth dynasty rarely interacted with others, the starting points of the Four Kingdoms were about the same, and the Youhan Dynasty was like a top student who had scored extremely high on an exam.
In their eyes, they only needed to deal with the other two kingdoms first, leaving the single-character dynasty for later. The situation wouldn’t change much.
So, a great war that would instantly sweep across the entire continent began, at the instigation of the Youhan Dynasty.
“But that’s much later.” Yan Chuyue crossed her arms and mumbled, “The collapse of the Heartflame Empire was originally supposed to happen in about half a year. The setting of the Baiyao Dynasty was just my idea, let alone the Youhan Dynasty.”
For some reason, since Gong Yiling had already guessed the answer, Yan Chuyue was no longer spouting nonsense.
“But lately, the Youhan Dynasty has been making a lot of small moves. You’ve advanced the timeline of these stories. It’s hard to say their actions won’t be advanced too.”
“My fault~”
Miss Gong couldn’t help but stick out her tongue.
However, after hearing Yan Chuyue’s description, Gong Yiling didn’t feel the situation was dire. In fact, she thought it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
What did she mean?
Assuming the matter with the Youhan Dynasty also had the Heavenly Sin pulling strings in the background, how could they have guessed she would also be here?
Moreover, look at what she looked like now. Even if she stood right in front of them, they would surely not recognize her.
Don’t ask, just assume the system’s punishment had inadvertently done her a big favor.
“Speaking of which,”
Gong Yiling couldn’t help but ask, “The Youhan Dynasty is so powerful. How did they manage to screw themselves over?”
“They thought so too, but this is a war of aggression. How could everyone be of one mind?” Yan Chuyue crossed her arms. “The essence of a war of aggression is the plunder of resources, and the cost of a full-scale invasion is huge. Even the Youhan Dynasty couldn’t come up with so much money for preparations at once, so they had to borrow from the chambers of commerce.”
“You have to know, it’s a commercial country. Some are willing to invest in the war, while others don’t want their foreign sales channels to be burned down. This involves more than just one commercial competition.”
“Therefore, some chambers of commerce certainly don’t want the Youhan Dynasty to win this war. They even bet on both sides, hoping the Youhan Dynasty will lose, so they might be able to snatch some initiative from the Youcang Court, and they might even make a huge profit from both sides.”
Uh… this sounded a lot like… the legendary American behavior?
Profiting from both sides, letting others die while they reaped the benefits, even rising to power by pretending to be the obedient son.
“Truly worthy of being merchants.” Gong Yiling clapped her hands and mumbled, “To play so big, even scheming against their own country, that’s something else.”
Yan Chuyue smiled. “Merchants are like that, chasing profits. Besides, the Youhan Dynasty has squeezed a lot of oil from them through the Youcang Court, much more than taxes.”
Mmm… it felt like this girl was alluding to something. But it seemed that compared to the previous two incidents, this turmoil was more like a dog-eat-dog situation.
If it weren’t for not wanting the Heavenly Sin to quietly seize real power, Miss Gong certainly wouldn’t have bothered with this mess.
“That’s about it.” Feeling that they had been strolling outside for long enough, Yan Chuyue casually released a useless carrier pigeon, then, pulling Gong Yiling back, said,
“Since we have a chance this time, maybe we can try to strike first. But I haven’t figured out how to break this situation yet.”
At this point, she couldn’t help but gently pinch the little loli’s cheek.
Ah… what was “skin like congealed fat”? She had always thought she had almost reached this level, but it was clear that this feeling was nothing compared to a fourteen-year-old loli with a peerless face.
Ah, right, she seemed to have not said that very classic line, Brother, how are you even more beautiful than me? But this sentence, it didn’t matter whether she said it or not now.
Of course, Miss Gong, who was studying Yan Chuyue’s words, didn’t care what she was molesting.
Everything was as Yan Chuyue said. This time was different from the previous two.
Before, as long as she dealt with those who should be dealt with and shattered their conspiracies, everything would go back to the beginning, and there would be no problem.
But.
It was clear that this time, the one to be dealt with was definitely not the one who caused the problem.
Who caused the problem this time? The Murong royal family, the warmongering soldiers, and all the merchants with their own agendas. She couldn’t just cut them all down like the real Gong Yiling, could she?
She probably couldn’t even cut them all down by herself.
Although there were many methods, such as preventing this war from happening, preventing these merchants from doing some double-crossing, or not helping either side, and secretly finding the people of the Heavenly Sin, as long as she dealt with them, the rest of the Youhan Dynasty’s turmoil would have nothing to do with her.
After thinking about it, on the way back to the pavilion, Gong Yiling whispered a sentence in Yan Chuyue’s ear.
