Everyone could see the current situation at sea clearly. The Near-Sea Archipelago had already become Qi State's backyard.
Ye Henshui, Court Consultant of Qi State, carried out the maritime policy of "each island a verse, winding waters as corridors." Every day, he attended banquets and cultivated connections—poetry gatherings, wine gatherings, merchant gatherings...—transforming the near-sea islands with a gentle rain and soft wind.
While emphasizing each island's distinctive features, he also turned them into "components," different parts of one complete whole. Commerce here, farming there, fruit trees on this island, mulberries on that one... In short, no side could do without another; none of the islands could exist independently.
Sea Fishing Tower had no power to resist at all. Yang Valley had always kept to one corner, while the remaining islands feared only that they might not kneel quickly enough. The East Sea being Qi State's sea was slowly being accepted as a common understanding, becoming reality.
Penglai Island repeatedly tried to exert its influence, using its support for Sea Fishing Tower as an opportunity to plant its banner upon the sea, only to be pushed back by the people of Qi time and again.
This open and covert struggle was exceedingly brilliant, a chapter that people such as Ye Henshui and Qi Wen could never fully recount.
Under such circumstances, when the people of Jing Kingdom came from the west with a vast and mighty momentum, the people of Qi were actually able to discard their previous arrangements entirely, throw wide their fences, let the Jing people enter, and give them a chance to join the game. That undoubtedly required courage.
They kept the greater picture of the Human Race in their sights, yet feared not at all to contend with the people of Jing.
"Letting you come, sharing with