Huali and the other imperial ministers exchanged several cryptic glances. They were all old foxes, cunning to the bone, and had long since grasped the key point—there was no doubt that the plan proposed by the Longshan Family would bring enormous benefits to the Gallic Empire.
Most importantly, the Gallic Empire had only just emerged from the Hundred-Year Land-Island War a little over forty years ago. After more than forty years of recuperation, it had finally managed to recover its Primal Qi from that dreadful war. As the main battlefield of the conflict, the Gallic Empire had been battered into complete ruin. If not for the economic aid of so many nations across the Western Continent, it would have gone bankrupt a hundred times over.
So when the other races launched another large-scale invasion, the Gallic Empire—and indeed, every nation large and small across the Western Continent—simply lacked the strength to fight another all-out war. To put it bluntly, these countries had no spare money for war.
For the beastmen, barbarians, Titans, and dwarves, launching a war was simplicity itself. They only had to shoulder their ancestral weapons, don their ancestral armor, or bare their chests and march straight onto the battlefield. They needed no pay—they plundered wealth directly. They needed no rations—they fed off the land.
But when a human empire went to war, soldiers' pay, provisions, weapons, and compensation for the wounded and dead were colossal expenses, enough to drive every nation's finance minister mad. With the Gallic Empire's current assets, the gold in its treasury could probably sustain a nationwide mobilization for six months. After those six months, the Gallic Empire would not have even a single copper coin left!
Of course, the Gallic Empire could borrow money—from aristocratic houses and powerful clans with vast hidden wealth,