The Empress’s Gigolo

Ren Baqian pondered.

I could say that I was originally here to do a social survey… In the end, after Ren Baqian left Gu City, everything was totally different from what he had expected, and he wondered why it turned out like this.

“What do you want my cooperation for?” Ren Baqian asked.

“These people are finished, and these days are their last days of glory…” Su Qing looked out the window and heaved a sigh.

“Actually, I was initially a little worried, worried that you aboriginals would be forced back into the mountains due to being besieged from all directions. The end result of the Yun Nation, Tianjing Basin, the Chen Nation, and Great Xia launching offensives against the aboriginals can be foreseen. After all, the brains of the aboriginals… Well, you know. I don’t expect them to be able to deal with this situation.” Su Qing gave Ren Baqian a “you know” gesture and continued, “This outcome is what many people wish for, but it’s not what I want to see.”

“Did the Chen Nation send out their army?” Ren Baqian grasped the significance of this information.

“They will within the next few days or they may have already marched out.” Su Qing didn’t hide the news as they was no need to do so. Ren Baqian would soon receive the news once he left Tianjing Basin anyway.

“What do you want?” Ren Baqian asked again.

“I do not want Great Xia to have no enemies. I should have been happy when I initially saw this entrapment since the aboriginals have produced a smart person, but I quickly became worried. If your people settle down too quickly, Great Xia would see no headway and would have to retreat. This is also something that I don’t wish to see,” Su Qing replied.

Ren Baqian immediately understood what Su Qing was saying. He was hoping to see Great Xia get stuck in a quagmire and become unable to extricate itself.

Great Xia should at least suffer a major defeat and have to reorganize the army in order to fight again.

The resources and troops of Great Xia were already exhausted. To equip the army to fight again in a short windows of time, they would need to recruit new soldiers. If that wasn’t enough, conscription was needed.

Ensuring adequate resources for hundreds of thousands of soldiers in a short period of time was very difficult even for Great Xia. Under these circumstances, they would probably have to raise taxes.

If certain areas became destitute and people purposely instigated the impoverished, a rebellion would probably break out in an instant.

If Great Xia defeated the aboriginals, the returning army could quell the rebellion.

However, if Great Xia became stuck in a quagmire or was even defeated and there were internal rebellions, the foundations of the empire would be shaken.

Ren Baqain analyzed the problems that could arise if Great Xia were to send out troops again.

The key point was that the war between the aboriginals and the other nations couldn’t be too short and needed to drag on. The simplest method would be to incite a rebellion in Tianjing Basin that would take a while to suppress. Seeing the dire circumstances inside Dayao, the Great Xia army that had just been badly defeated would make up its mind to fight again.

As for what to levy taxes on, the other party should know the conditions in Great Xia better than Ren Baqian.

Whether or not the commoners became destitute… this wasn’t an issue at all. As long as their own people had the same mindset and were there, it was very easy to make a region become destitute.

By that point, it would be a matter of raising arms and calling for action.

Ren Baqian felt that his thought process was not completely correct, but it was highly feasible.

He didn’t ask the other party whether they wanted to rebel. He tapped on the table a few times with his fingers and asked, “How will it benefit us?”

“A weak Great Xia means safety for your people,” Su Qing said.

“No, we don’t need that. We do not care whether Great Xia is strong or weak.” Ren Baqian shook his head. With him around and with scientific and technological advancement, it could easily be imagined that Dayao would be prosperous and powerful. He didn’t care whether Great Xia was strong during the next few years, next 10 plus years, or even next few decades. It didn’t matter if they exerted pressure on Dayao.

Ren Baqian then spoke with contempt “Moreover, Great Xia alone cannot stir up too much trouble.”

He wasn’t looking down on them, but in terms of raw power, one aboriginal was equivalent to 10 people from Great Xia.

“You underestimate the people of this world and also Great Xia. Wu Shenghou planned for so many years. If it weren’t for your weird weapons, the northern region of Dayao would be gone,” Su Qing replied.

“You seem to know a lot, ” Ren Baqian retorted.

Su Qing smiled and didn’t answer. After all, many things that were used on the battlefield couldn’t be hidden from other people.

In fact, what Su Qing cared about most wasn’t the weapons that Ren Baqian used on the battlefield, but the way the aboriginal army moved freely like flowing water, including during the conflict in the northeast. The aboriginal commanders responded extremely quickly to the battle conditions and had their combat effectiveness increase by 30 percent.

This was difficult even for Great Xia to achieve. He speculated that there was certainly a reason behind this. Although there wasn’t any evidence, he had some hypotheses.

“Show me your trump card as a war will cause deaths. If Great Xia gets dragged in, an unknown number of people will die, resources will be wasted, and your words will not be able to simply smooth things over.”

“100 million taels of silver within three years!” Su Qing said firmly and clearly.

“That’s one year of revenue for the Great Xia treasury… Can you provide it?” Ren Baqian’s heart skipped a beat. 100 million taels of silver was an absolutely astronomical figure and was more than 10 years of revenue for Dayao.

The income of the Dayao treasury was a few million taels annually and little was left after all the expenses. This sum of money could be used to pay for so many things.

Even Ren Baqian was tempted.

Even though he had made up his mind to conquer all of the Yun Nation because he wanted to make it part of the national territory of Dayao, he couldn’t be too antagonistic since the money he could earn by the end of that conquest might be less than the sum of money being offered now.

“The aristocratic families from Great Xia are still very rich. I will get them to come up with this sum of money, but it will take some time and requires Great Xia to be in chaos.” Su Qing smiled confidently.

Ren Baqian admired this type of “I don’t have it, but I can rob” attitude.

“On top of this, you have to do three things for me. This will be the premise of our cooperation,” Ren Baqian said. Everything else was false and would come to an end in the future. With this renegade, it would be easier to pass through safely this time.

“Tell me about them,” Su Qing said after some pondering. This cooperation was very important to him.

“The first is to help me deliver a letter to the protectorate in Gu City within two days. I think you should have subordinates in Gu City and also the contacts,” Ren Baqian said.

“Xi Wanya should already be on the road, but I can do this. The person who delivers the letter will depart from Gu City immediately.” Su Qing smiled.

Ren Baqian was quite relieved to hear his promise.

In fact, when he learned that the empress was in Tianjing Basin two days ago, he remembered the radio station.

What made him feel like smashing the wall was the fact that radio set was completely unusable.

At first, he thought it was due to the magnetic field of Mount Tianyun, but all along the road after leaving Mount Tianyun, the radio station was still unusable. No matter what channel he switched to, all he got were loud static noises.

This made Ren Baqian suspect that the ionosphere over Tianjing Basin was causing the problem, and he had no choice but to give up on radio communications.

This wasn’t his fault, it was the fault of this world.

His companion, Lin Qiaole, was also unreliable.

He had solved his biggest problem by getting Su Qing to help him deliver the message. In the worst case scenario, at least he would not have to clash against more than 10 Spirit Wheel experts surrounding him while “playing mahjong” when he and the empress returned from a visit to Earth.

[Mahjong is a tile-based game that was developed in China during the Qing dynasty and has spread throughout the world since the early 20th century. It is commonly played by four players.]

“I will tell you the other two conditions a few days from now,” Ren Baqian said.

“The proposed tasks must be things that I am capable of doing.”

“I will not make things difficult for you.” Ren Baqian smiled after observing that Su Qing was always overthinking matters. However, the appearance of the empress had caused a group of people to plan for her assassination, and he happened to have mixed in with a group of people here.

If he said that it wasn’t intentional, nobody would believe him.

However, these Hao Nation remnants were very unfortunate. Of the two foreign envoys, one was an undercover agent and the other was a renegade… One was enough to make them feel like vomiting blood, not to mention two of them. If they knew the truth, they would definitely seek revenge.

“Beside the muscles in your brain, what else is presentable? You can’t even find the way to the inn and unnecessarily made me walk so far,” a clear voice said.

“You can’t find the inn either,” another speaker retorted in a voice that was rougher.

“Hey! Do you think that I won’t smash you into the wall?”

…

The voices from the street made Ren Baqian’s ears prick up… Was that the little lolita? Why was she here?

This city was full of top experts, yet you little rascals actually made your way here…