"Tell me how you plan to break the deadlock."
Wisdom Shield had long since grown somewhat immune to Chen Cheng's roller-coaster way of speaking, so he went straight to the point.
Chen Cheng smiled knowingly.
"Does Your Excellency the Count still remember the plan I gave you before? Once the results began to show, if we wanted to develop, we would have to rely on one word—borrow.
"Right now, Huidun Territory, you included... honestly speaking, has nothing when it comes to anything. Do you know what the greatest and deepest factor supporting the existence of a state regime is?"
Chen Cheng's words leapt from point to point, leaving Wisdom Shield somewhat unable to react. He thought Chen Cheng was testing him, so he blurted out at once,
"The greatest and deepest factor supporting the existence of a state regime? Population? Or land? Or perhaps the army?"
Yet after hearing this, Chen Cheng merely revealed a meaningful smile and let Wisdom Shield figure it out for himself.
"Enough with the suspense. Were the things I said right or not?"
Seeing Chen Cheng act like this, Wisdom Shield truly wanted to seize him by the neck and make him explain everything in one go.
Chen Cheng also knew it was time to properly lay it all out for him.
"The points you mentioned can be called both right and wrong. They are right because they are all necessary elements of a country. They are wrong because you did not mention the greatest factor that brings them together.
"That factor is benefit—or, to put it another way, wealth.
"Take what you just said as an example. In this era, when human trafficking had not yet been abolished, people were part of wealth. Land was the same, and as for armies, they were made