The World Online

The terms the Yanhuang Alliance raised were not simple, there were three core terms.

Firstly, the Yunnan City-State would pay all the military expenses.

The military expenses included but were not limited to teleportation fees, grain supply consumption, equipment losses, and war reparations.

Apart from that, after the war ended, Yanhuang Alliance had priority in choosing soldiers from the prisoners to add to their armies to avoid losses in their numbers.

Di Chen and the others had truly considered everything and wanted to take a bite at Shanhai City without suffering any loses.

Of course, this was the simplest term out of the three.

Secondly, the Yunnan City-State needed to pay a mercenary fee.

Based on Chun Shenjun’s words, ”Nowadays, even mercenary guilds earn money, much less proper armies like ours.”

This time, Di Chen and the rest surprisingly agreed with Chun Shenjun.

As for the specifics, the Yunnan City-State needed to pay 300 thousand. After the war, they would need to pay a sizeable sum each year, no less than 200 thousand.

No matter what, this price was not too expensive, and it was also paid in parts.

Yanhuang Alliance’s actions were also aimed at calming the Yunnan City-State. They wanted to tell them that this was not a one-off deal and that they were willing to provide them with long term protection.

Thirdly, Yunnan City-state recognizes Yanhuang Alliance as their suzerain.

Simply put, Yanhuang Alliance wanted to have some say in their politics.

Suzerainty was a western colony country concept, referring to how the suzerain had power in the internal affairs and diplomacy of the servant state. The suzerain had powers but the servant state had independence in rule for the most part.

Strictly speaking, be it Yanhuang Alliance or Yunnan City-State, both were scattered alliances and did not have the ability to be a true representative.

To talk about suzerainty seemed a little odd.

But the goal of Di Chen and the others was truly obvious; they wanted tie the Yunnan City-State under them to control their rival, Shanhai City.

This point was what the Lords of the Yunnan City-State found the hardest to accept.

No matter how one looked at it, suzerainty made them a colony, making it a master-servant relationship. Both sides would be on different levels, and it was like an insult to the servant ’state’.

Qin Feng was not pleased with it but remained rational, ”But we have no choice. To be their vassal state is much better than being uprooted by Shanhai City, right?”

When the Lords heard his words, they all kept silent. Their eyes were filled with loneliness and sadness.

In the wilderness, the weak submitting to the strong was normal. Just like what Qin Feng had said, they had no choice; it was either submit or they die.

”Talk to them, try to get some better terms.”

In the end, the Lords gave Qin Feng the power to represent Yunnan City-State to discuss with Yanhuang Alliance for more specific terms. The three terms were just the general structure, and there were still many specifics that needed discussion.

”Do not worry; the interests of the City-State are the most important. If I harm the interests of the City-State, you can keep me out of it.”

From the day the City-State was established to now, each one of them had a sense of belonging and relationship with one another.

No matter what, they were allies in the same boat and were different from people like Di Chen.

Xiangnan Province, Caiyun City.

The defeat in Lingnan made Caiyun Zinan feel extremely depressed. As the battle came to an end, Shanhai City was like a huge mountain pressing down on him, making it difficult for him to breathe.

During the City-State committee meeting that had just ended, the expansion of Alliance Army policy that Caiyun Zinan proposed was unanimously accepted.

Even so, he did not feel relaxed in the slightest. Expanding the scale to 250 thousand would still not be enough to defend against one Tiger Legion Corps.

”Zifang, what should we do next?” After returning, Caiyun Zinan asked Zhang Liang, his eyes filled with hope. At such a time, only Zhang Liang could give him hope.

The tactical level that Zhang Liang showed was truly shocking. During these few days, Zhang Liang had been studying relevant info to try to find a way to break the situation.

Now, Zhang Liang already had a rough idea.

”Lord, the only plan now is to ally with the outside while increasing internal affairs infrastructure.” Zhang Liang did not hide anything and voiced his thoughts.

Furthermore, in terms of construction speed, Caiyun City was definitely not a match for Shanhai City. One must know that Shanhai City was the construction textbook and model of the entire world.

Hence, the gap between the two would only widen.

The internal affairs that Zhang Liang referred to were learning from the lessons of Lingnan City-State and avoid the cons of a City-State. The most core point was to get rid of the group discussion and decision making mechanism.

”Lord, you need to obtain more speaking rights in the City-State. At the crucial moment, you need to be able to make decisions yourself.” Zhang Liang said.

”How?” Caiyun Zinan’s eyes glimmered.

Making decisions himself, wasn’t that his goal from the start?

Zhang Liang said, ”I suggest we take a look at the merging model between Shanhai City and Consonance City. First, we act in the neighbouring territories and slowly consolidate the resources within the City-State.”

”This, won’t this break the unity of the City-State and make them revolt?” Although Caiyun Zinan wanted to make it big, he still had to consider the reaction of his allies.

Zhang Liang shook his head, ”Lord, desperate times call for desperate measures. The Xiangnan City-State is already on the verge of dying, at such a time, a crisis is also an opportunity. As long as we can survive, some territories would not put up a resistance.”

”Furthermore, merger is also a win-win. Even a giant like Consonance City could accept it, much less these small territories?”

When Caiyun Zinan heard that, his heart calmed down; he gritted his teeth and steadied himself, ”Good, I’ll follow what mister said. As for the specific merger plan, I’ll have to busy mister.”

”No worries.” Zhang Liang nodded.

From his viewpoint, be it for Caiyun City or the entire Xiangnan City-State, a merger was a win-win situation. Caiyun City could use this chance to expand, and this would in turn raise overall strength of the City-State.

The only thing they needed to be careful about was to not annoy their allies. Merger was not swallowing up, so they could not make the allies angry and cause any internal problems.

At the same time, they also needed to know when to stop.

One could foresee that the moment Caiyun City started doing taking such ation, the other big Lords in the City-State would follow.

The end result would be that the 50 to 60 Lords in the City-State would end up being ruled by a few powerful people.

However, this was an improvement to their situation.

The entire process concerned too many interests and was really complicated. It could cause a crisis at any moment and tested the ability of the Lord to control the situation.

If this succeeded, Xiangnan City-State would be totally reborn, its strength taking a huge step forward. They would have the chips and foundation to go up against Shanhai City.

However, if they failed, the City-State would completely collapse and fall to an irrecoverable state.

Zhang Liang believed that he could control the situation. After all, he was a confident person.

...

To go up against Shanhai City, purely focusing on internal affairs would not cut it; they also needed to proactively participate in diplomatic activities.

Yunnan Alliance cooperated with the entire Yanhuang Alliance while Zhang Liang targeted Pill Sun City in the north as well as the Shu lands northwest.

The Shu lands that had animosity with Shanhai City were a really good target. However, the Shu lands were mountainous and hard to travel in and out of, so the amount support they could provide was really limited.

As for Pill Sun City, it was because of strategic considerations.

Like how Xiongba did not wish for Shanhai City to pierce past Minnan Province and was hence trying to make Xunlong Dianxue betray the Shanhai Alliance, Chun Shenjuan did not want Shanhai City to take down Xiangnan City-State.

One must not look at how Yanhuang Alliance was shouting so ferociously. In truth, none of them wanted a head-on confrontation with Shanhai City.

They especially did not want to have their territory connected to Shanhai City.

If that really happened, Chun Shenjuan and Xiong Ba would not be able to sleep at night.

No matter whether they were willing to admit it or not, Shanhai City was the overlord of the China region, its position was unshakeable, a mighty lion.

No one wanted to be neighbors with a lion.

Hence, Pill Sun City had enough reason to support Xiangnan Province to go up against Shanhai City together.

”I heard the Pill Sun City Lord is really rich and also has the Huitong Bank. Lord, why not contact him and see if we can get a sizeable loan.” Zhang Liang smiled as he said.

As expected from the Strategy Saint. Not long after appearing in the wilderness, he had understood many things about modern society.

When Caiyun Zinan heard that, his eyes lit up, smiling, ”Zifang is a genius, why didn’t I think about this point. The territory is still worrying about funds, now that’s settled.”

It seemed like Caiyun Zinan was going to seek a push from Pill Sun City.

Caiyun Zinan was not really a fool and knew all the weaknesses of the Lords in Yanhuang Alliance. Chun Shenjun was a pure merchant who had money but not a strong army.

With just that weakness, Caiyun Zinan was confident in biting off a huge chunk of meat from Pill Sun City.