"Of course, it wasn't all bad. Regulating the martial world made the country increasingly stable, while promoting civil governance and suppressing military power led to a flourishing of culture. In the middle period of the previous dynasty, our country experienced an unprecedented cultural prosperity, and those few decades were also the happiest period for the people."
Li Dayong spoke a few fair words for the policy shift of that era, but overall, he still viewed it critically, even though he himself had benefited from it to some extent.
The changes in the Flower Kingdom's sphere of influence during that period also fully proved Li Dayong's point:
The Flower Kingdom first withdrew from the New World and the Calm Belt. Later, even the nations of the West Blue successively defected to the World Government. In the end, only the nearby countries and regions still regarded the Flower Kingdom as the legitimate Celestial Dynasty. All its previous efforts had practically gone to waste.
However, the fact that Ohara and Adam Island were among those remaining territories showed that even the much-weakened previous dynasty had been far more powerful than the Flower Kingdom was now.
The Flower Kingdom's decline naturally stirred the World Government, which still harbored resentment over its defeat back then. Yet the terrible price they had paid after the Eight Dragon Rebellion remained vivid in their minds, so they ultimately did not dare make a move.
Even when the Flower Kingdom's "golden age" ended and it briefly fell into chaos due to a powerful minister usurping the throne, the World Government did not take advantage of the crisis. Instead, it even sent the Navy to help maintain peace and limit the scale of the conflict.
At first glance, the World Government and the Celestial Dragons behind it seemed as though