The World Online
chapter-907

Yang Jian looked at Wang Meng expressionlessly, “Yanhuang Alliance has always lost Great Xia. How preposterous, you actually claim that you can help me.”

Wang Meng jolted; he did not expect that Emperor Wen of Sui would be so hard to get.

A ruler naturally had the pride of a ruler.

Before having a confrontation with the Great Xia, how would Yang Jian admit that he was weaker? The million guards he had in his hands were the strongest trump card. Even if Great Sui did not have the geographical advantage, they could still hold on.

Wang Meng was helpless, and he could only say, “Your highness, please believe in our sincerity. The Yanhuang Alliance will work with Great Sui at any time, as we have a common enemy.”

Yang Jian waved his hand, “You can leave first!”

He did not reject the offer, but he did not agree to it either. As a ruler, apart from pride, he naturally was smart. He knew that he needed to leave himself a way out for everything.

Who knows, maybe the Great Sui would someday need the Yanhuang Alliance’s help.

Wang Meng sighed and took his leave. This time, his calculations had failed. Messing up his first mission given to him by the Lord made Wang Meng really depressed.

…

After Wang Meng left, Emperor Wen of Sui called for the minister of administrative affairs, Gao Ying.

Emperor Wen of Sui who started the rule of Kaihuang had huge contributions in terms of the dynasty system. He removed the nine rank system and changed it into the five departments and six ministry system, which was the blueprint for the Tang Dynasty’s three departments and six ministry system.

Within the five departments, there were the imperial orders, administrative affairs, verification of orders and policies, secretary, and eunuch departments. The secretary department was in charge of books and calendar, and the eunuch department was the organization of officials in the Imperial Court. In truth, there were only three departments.

Under the administrative affairs department there were six ministries for officials, customs, soldiers, punishment, projects, and population. One minister led hundreds of officials, and two assistants that were in charge of the heads of the six ministries.

The minister was often a puppet with the left assistant being the actual one in control.

In history, during Emperor Wen of Sui’s time, Gao Ying was the left assistant while Su Wei, Yang Su had also taken the role before. Entering Quanzhou and seeing this bunch of officials once more, Yang Jian was filled with emotions and changed his thoughts.

He promoted Gao Ying to minister of the department and Su Wei became the left assistant, while Yang Su would continue to be the right assistant. The three of them formed a triangle and were the core ministers of the Great Sui.

After a short while, Gao Ying appeared in the side palace.

Gao Ying was a minister of a generation. Not only was he really capable, but he was bold and was skilled in both military and administrative matters.

When Emperor Wen of Sui was still the North Zhou prime minister, Gao Ying had already secretly joined him. During which, Gao Ying helped him remove Yuchi Qiong, clearing obstacles for his ascension.

When he ascended and established the Sui dynasty, he appointed Gao Ying as the left assistant and as the prime minister. Before establishing the country, Gao Ying and Su Wei worked together, and the emperor would seek their advice on all administrative matters.

During which, Gao Ying changed the laws. He made the Turk in the north yield and settled Chen Dynasty in the south. As a result, he gained a lot of credit.

Gao Ying was also good at recommending talents. People like Su Wei, Yang Su, He Ruo, and the like were people that he strongly recommended.

However, at the ending years of Kaihuang, Gao Ying were like other ministers that had contributed a lot. He lost the faith of the ruler, and his rank and title were stripped from him.

During the rule of Emperor Yang of Sui, he was directly killed for slandering the Dynasty.

“Your highness!”

The Gao Ying that had appeared in the wilderness was close to 50. Although his eyes were cloudy, they seemed like it had seen through everything in the world. His eyes were filled with a lot of wisdom.

Who knows whether the current Gao Ying had any doubts in his heart.

Emperor Wen of Sui nodded. He told Gao Ying about the Wang Meng matter and asked, “What do you think about this matter?”

Gao Ying’s face was really calm. For people like him who had been through so many storms, nothing could excite him or make him feel fear, “In my eyes, we should wait and see.”

“Why?”

Gao Ying said, “The Great Sui has just laid our roots in the wilderness and needs an adaptation period. The situation in the wilderness is uncertain, Great Xia’s attitude is uncertain, and war rules are uncertain, so we cannot move randomly.”

Gao Ying said that three things were uncertain, causing the emperor to frown.

The so-called battle rules referred to the restraints that Gaia had placed on dynasties. The four dynasties that had appeared so far in the wilderness of China were restricted to one prefecture of land. It was not that they did not want to expand but that Gaia did not allow it.

The four dynasties were all hidden dragons circling in the depths. They could not rise up into the skies.

Since Gaia wanted to use the NPCs to train the Lords, it could not squeeze the Lords too hard and cause them to be wiped out by the NPC powers.

Gaia had a really accurate grasp on the specifics.

Only when the time was right would Gaia allow these dynasties to do whatever they wanted.

Gaia was playing a huge chess game.

Gao Ying continued, “Although the Yanhuang Alliance says that we have a common enemy, they have bad intentions, and their goal is for us two to fight. They want to be like fishermen, catching all the gains.”

The small acts of Di Chen and the others were unable to escape the eyes of an old fox like Gao Ying.

Of course, Di Chen’s actions had an effect. Although his plan had failed, it planted a thorn between Great Sui and Great Xia. Since that happened, and he did not use much strength, Di Chen was glad to do it.

“You’re right.” Emperor Wen nodded; he had such a thought previously.

“If I’m right, the Great Xia will take the initiative to contact us.” Gao Ying made a bold prediction, “Quanzhou and Great Xia have a close trading relationship so they have no reason not to.”

Speaking of which, a look of worry flashed across his face.

The biggest crisis of the Great Sui was not that they were surrounded geographically but that their resource provision was in the hands of Great Xia.

In the imperial city, the NPCs had a fixed population. It was based on a 1:10 ratio of troops to population. The overall population in the city was 10 times that of the Guards army.

In Quanzhou, they were able to have 11 million NPCs. Along with the 10 million players, the entire city had over 20 million people.

What kind of concept was a 20 million people city? Even in the 21st century, where the population boomed, China only had three cities that broke 20 million.

With the ancient city size as a limit, they could not handle such a scale of people. Just the grain consumption would mean millions of units of grain per day, and they needed a province of land to provide such a scale of grain.

For the people in the city to survive, they needed not only grain, but also vegetables, fish, meat, salt, leather, cloth, and more.

Without an entire province transfusing blood for the imperial city, they could not support such a scale.

Before the emperor moved into the imperial city, although Quanzhou City had over 20 million NPCs, a large portion of them were supported by Gaia. As such, it would not burden the imperial city.

When Emperor Wen of Sui moved into Quanzhou, all the support was removed.

As a result, if the four prefectures of Minnan Province that belonged to Great Xia Dynasty stopped the provisions of goods to Quanzhou, Quanzhou would be in chaos due to a lack of resources. It would take less than half a month.

Of course, that was only the extreme case. In such a scenario, both sides would be hurt, and no one would gain anything from it.

If Ouyang Shuo really gave such an order, Great Sui could only send troops to protect themselves to try to use force to take over Minnan Province.

That was something no one wanted to see.

No matter what, Great Xia Dynasty controlled the lifeline of the Great Sui. Hence, Gao Ying felt really anxious about it.

Emperor Wen was not a fool and naturally thought about that. He agreed with Gao Ying’s thoughts and was prepared to wait and observe the changes.

…

Shanhai City, Xia Palace.

Not long after Wang Meng arrived in Quanzhou, the Shanhai Guards found out.

During these two years, the Black Snake Guards before and the current Shanhai Guards had both worked really hard. They had formed an airtight information network in Quanzhou City.

Anything that happened there would be seen by them.

When Shen Buhai got the news, he knew that this was a crucial piece of intel. He immediately validated it himself before contacting the king.

When Ouyang Shuo heard the news, he was not surprised. In fact, it would be abnormal if Di Chen and the others did not touch the sensitive relationship between Great Sui and Great Xia.

“I know, continue to monitor.” Ouyang Shuo instructed.

“Yes my king!”

Shen Buhai took his leave. Then Ouyang Shuo turned to Tsing Yi and said, “Call the Honglu Temple.” Considering the time, Emperor Wen had already settled down, and it was time to contact him.

“Yes!”

The Xia Palace did not have eunuchs. Naturally, there was not a head eunuch. Tsing Yi played the equivalent role.

After a short while, Zhang Yi came over.

“Greetings my king!”

“Please sit!” Ouyang Shuo waved his hand, “I called you here for you to be an ambassador to a country.”

“Are you referring to Great Sui?” Probably only Great Sui was able to make Zhang Yi personally visit as an ambassador.

“Smart.” Ouyang Shuo nodded, “The dynasty has had a close relationship with Quanzhou. Be it in terms of trading or culture, we have been on good terms.”

“Seeing that they have a new master, we need to keep up this friendship and send our congratulations. Both sides signed an agreement before, which needs to be reconfirmed.”

“The king wants to continue the cooperation between the two?”

Ouyang Shuo gave a smile that did not look like a smile as he looked at Zhang Yi, “Why not?”

Zhang Yi was terrified. He bowed as he said, “I’ve said something wrong, please punish me my king.”

“I understand your kind intentions.” Ouyang Shuo looked relaxed, “It’s better to be harmonious.”

“Yes my king!”

Zhang Yi nodded. In his heart, he was digesting and thinking about what the king meant by those words.