The World United; the Capital Moved to Chang'an

"This Qing Emperor is quite something. He actually sent their Crown Prince over."

Looking at Crown Prince Aisin Gioro Fulin, bound atop the distant city wall, Yan Yun shook his head in speechless disbelief.

On the distant city wall.

The officials holding Fulin down watched as the Yanhuang Empire ignored them completely, their faces darkening.

Though they had already been prepared for this, they still couldn't hide their disappointment.

But Aisin Gioro Fulin, pinned down, saw this and a glimmer of hope for survival immediately rose in his eyes.

Since the Yanhuang Empire was ignoring them, he wouldn't have to be the scapegoat.

However, he had barely had time to feel glad when a cold voice sounded beside him. "Your Highness the Crown Prince, have a safe journey."

The moment the words fell, Fulin felt a sharp pain in his neck.

He tried to clutch his throat, but the two soldiers beside him held him back. Soon, he went still.

Looking at the body in his hands, Chen Gaoming wiped the blood from his fingers without expression. "Take His Highness the Crown Prince's body away and see that it's properly laid to rest."

"Yes, sir!"

With his hands clasped behind his back, Chen Gaoming gazed at the brutal fighting beyond the city walls, his eyes deep. He couldn't help sighing inwardly. What a pity. How did the Qing suddenly end up on the verge of collapse? Looks like I'd better make plans of my own. I can't exactly die alongside these barbarians.

With that, Chen Gaoming turned and left the city wall.

After returning to the city, he took advantage of his position to quietly make off with a large portion of the city's gold and silver. Then he vanished without a trace.

That evening, when his subordinates went looking for him, they discovered that his residence had long since been deserted.

Seeing this, one of the soldiers froze for a moment before realizing that Chen Gaoming had fled.

He immediately returned to the city, gathered a few valuables, changed into commoner's clothes, and disguised himself. Before the city fell, he slipped into a group of civilians and escaped.

He knew that staying here now meant certain death. Running was his only chance of survival.

Besides, he was a nobody who didn't even deserve to have a name. He doubted anyone would go out of their way to target him.

Chen Gaoming and the soldier weren't the only ones in the city to do this.

Anyone with any sense was thinking about how to escape.

When an army was routed, the collapse was inevitable.

By the time the Yanhuang Empire and the other two nations breached the city gates, hardly anyone remained inside.

The chaotic streets were strewn with all kinds of belongings. Some soldiers and civilians were even fighting over anything of value.

Seeing this, Yan Yun waved his hand and ordered his men to search the city and leave no one behind.

The Russian Dynasty and Zunghar Khanate troops searched the city with such thoroughness that they might as well have turned over the earth itself.

They had borne almost the entire burden of this campaign and suffered heavy losses. They desperately needed some compensation.

Yan Yun pretended not to notice.

After all, you couldn't expect a horse to run without feeding it, and he didn't care about such a small amount of loot anyway.

The next morning.

Apart from the houses, which couldn't be carried away, the armies had taken apart and hauled off just about everything else they could get their hands on.

Looking at the rows of houses with their doors wide open, Yan Yun's mouth twitched. He couldn't help grumbling, "Are your soldiers all so dirt-poor that they even have to pull off the doors and take them away?"

The two men looked a little embarrassed.

The previous day, they had ordered their soldiers to take everything they could carry, but they hadn't expected them to go this far—not even the doors had been spared.

Seeing their expressions, Yan Yun waved a hand. "Forget it. They've already been removed. These houses will all be torn down and rebuilt sooner or later anyway."

After that, they continued their slow advance into the Qing Empire.

Time passed, and half a year went by in the blink of an eye.

The Qing Empire fell.

In this campaign, the Yanhuang Empire lost fewer than a thousand soldiers, while the Russian Dynasty and Zunghar Khanate suffered losses ten thousand times greater.

The other battlefronts were much the same. The subjugated emperors all complained to Ye Chen, each trying to outdo the others in describing their losses.

Yanhuang Empire, Xuanhuang City.

Ye Chen looked over the documents in his hands. They were all complaints from the kings of the empires that had served as the main force in the campaign. Their accounts were so miserable that it was as if they had no shame at all.

Of course, the complaints were just a show. Their real aim was to emphasize how much they had sacrificed for the war and how catastrophic their losses had been.

In other words, they wanted to say that they were already suffering terribly and had no strength left to resist, and that Ye Chen should go easy on them.

No one who became ruler of a country was a fool. They understood that even though they had formally submitted to the Yanhuang Empire and accepted its rule, Ye Chen would eventually move to weaken them one by one.

And his order for them to serve as the main force in the invasion had been the first strike.

Under the pretext of war, that strike had stripped them of most of their troops.

They knew Ye Chen was using them as cannon fodder, but they had no choice. Refusing to take the blow would mean death.

The rulers who understood Ye Chen's intentions had sent the maximum number of troops they could afford to lose.

Deliberately weakening themselves was the smart move. The harder they cut back, the safer they would be—and they could still ask Ye Chen for compensation.

Heaven and earth were impartial, treating all things like straw dogs.

Yet emperors could be just as ruthless, treating their people like straw dogs.

Ye Chen didn't care that millions of soldiers had died in this affair. They hadn't been his troops.

And the moment those emperors submitted to the Yanhuang Empire, they had already abandoned their soldiers.

In the end, the dead were nothing but sacrifices in the transfer of power. At most, a memorial would be erected to leave some trace of them in the world.

Ye Chen then used the information in his hands to respond to the former emperors and offer them some "compensation."

As for the emperors who hadn't committed their full strength, he would punish them as well.

With the end of this war, the whole world was finally united.

The enormous world map behind Ye Chen had turned completely red.

The only words on it were "Yanhuang." The names of all the other empires had disappeared.

Looking at the population totals, distribution, and terrain marked on the map, Ye Chen furrowed his brow.

He had noticed a problem: the imperial capital in North America was far too distant from everywhere else.

Now that the world had only just been unified, the people across the ocean had yet to accept the new order—especially those in the Huaxia region.

After some thought, Ye Chen decided to establish a new imperial capital in Huaxia. Now that the world was truly united and order had been restored, a new era had dawned.

So they needed a new capital as well.

With that in mind, Ye Chen said, "Yuan Lan, issue the order. In a year, we'll move the capital to Chang'an City and designate Xuanhuang City as the old capital.

"As for everything here, apart from essential equipment, transport only the bare necessities. Also, prepare for the unification ceremony a year from now."

"Yes, Your Majesty!"

Yuan Lan froze for a moment, then hurried off to deliver the order.