Wu Yuan's face suddenly stiffened.
He pretended not to understand. "Castrated... hens? Heh, I wonder what you mean by that, Sovereign Kang. The Northern Desert sincerely hopes to bring about this cooperation, so that the common people of both lands may be spared the ravages of war..."
Shen Tang raised a hand and cut off his endless spiel.
Moral blackmail only worked on people with morals. She prided herself on being a savage with none, so there was no way anyone could blackmail her.
"I'll speak plainly with you, Envoy, and I hope you'll show a little more sincerity and a little less scheming and calculation. Why don't you go out among the people and ask any farmer whether he'd sell you a hen that keeps laying eggs for the price of a single egg? Would he? Of course not! They're not fools. Farmers aren't fools. Do you think I'm a fool?"
Wu Yuan said, "If you're dissatisfied with the price, Sovereign Kang, I'm willing to offer the greatest concession within my authority. The price—"
Shen Tang cut him off. "It's not about the price. It has nothing to do with the price. In any country with a stable government, high-yield grain like this is a trump card worth more than tens of thousands of elite soldiers! No matter how sincere the Northern Desert is, I still have to prepare for the worst. You can blame your own history of shedding blood before the wounds have even healed. If you keep the seeds for yourselves, stockpile them for a few years, and then raise your troops and invade south..."
Wu Yuan felt his scalp prickle.
His smile grew noticeably stiffer.
"That could never happen."
Shen Tang said, "Nothing in this world is absolutely impossible. To put my mind at ease,