After learning that the Grand Governor's Mansion had wiped out the army of the Land of Rice Fields in a mere day, the hardliners were left reeling.
Not long ago, they had been loudly speculating about the Grand Governor's Mansion's fate once the Land of Rice Fields had put down the rebellion. Now they felt as if thunder had crashed down upon them.
One by one, they collapsed at home, beating their chests and stamping their feet, weeping as if the sky were falling.
They truly seemed to embody the sorrow of "the loyalists weep their last tears amid barbarian dust, gazing south for another year toward the imperial army."
After their crying, most of them stumbled out of their homes with ashen faces. Like walking corpses, they mechanically shuffled toward the Grand Governor's Mansion to apply for new citizen status.
They had long been suffering under the extremely unfair treatment. The only thing that had kept them going was their hope for the Land of Rice Fields.
Now that the army of the Land of Rice Fields had been defeated, they, too, began to accept reality and bow to life.
Even so, a tiny minority remained trapped in old dreams of their former homeland, unable to break free. In the end, they chose to disembowel themselves at home.
They would rather die than become subjects of the Grand Governor's Mansion.
Dongfang Mao had nothing to say about people like that. He simply ordered their estates seized and their property confiscated for the public treasury.
Their bodies were wrapped in straw mats and tossed outside the city into a mass grave, like stray dogs, left for jackals to gnaw and crows to peck.
By now, hardly anyone in the city had any backbone left. Seeing what had happened to those loyal to the Land of Rice Fields and the Daimyo,
they felt a chill run through them and began to treat any mention of the Land of Rice Fields as taboo.
With this group of people finally liberated, Tsukimiura at last settled into complete calm, and trade and agriculture gradually began to recover.
But Dongfang Mao had no time to concern himself with the city anymore.
Inside the Grand Governor's Mansion, Dongfang Mao stood with his hands behind his back, gazing at the large map hanging on the wall.
It was a hand-drawn map of the entire Land of Rice Fields, accurate in scale and rich in detail. It marked not only the mountains, rivers, forests, and terrain, but also the most notable resources produced in each region.
His eyes rested on the map's upper-right corner, a trace of greed glinting in them.
That was the southwest of the Land of Rice Fields, one of the country's few plains. Its land was fertile, its grain abundant, and its resources plentiful. Each year, it produced thirty percent of the country's grain.
Yet Dongfang Mao suddenly sighed, a hint of regret passing through his eyes.
The southwestern border of the Land of Rice Fields touched the Land of Lightning. He had already made quite a stir, and neighboring Land of Fire could send troops and ninja to aid the Land of Rice Fields at any moment.
In such circumstances, he couldn't recklessly expand westward and provoke the Land of Lightning, giving himself more trouble.
Then he turned his gaze east of Tsukimiura. The land to the east looked less appealing on the map, with its crisscrossing mountains, treacherous terrain, and meager resources.
But there was one highly unusual feature there.
A trade route, marked in vermilion on the map, stretched east from Tsukimiura, winding like a red dragon through the mountains for more than five hundred li and cutting straight through the range.
The Land of Fire and the Land of Rice Fields had built this trade route together. Dozens of prosperous towns were scattered along its length.
As the main route for trade between the two countries, it saw a constant stream of merchant caravans from the Land of Fire.
The towns along the route had grown to considerable size after serving as stops for travelers and merchants for so long. Trade had also made them densely populated.
If he could seize full control of this route and the towns along it, Dongfang Mao would not only choke the economic lifeline of the Land of Rice Fields,
he would also claim all the enormous profits from this vital trade artery. Those funds could continuously support the New Martial Army's massive military expenses, as well as research and development in the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Works, and other departments.
Most importantly, a towering mountain range stood at the end of the trade route, forming a natural barrier that completely cut off the heartland of the Land of Rice Fields from its eastern territories.
Only one extremely narrow highway crossed the mountains, creating a natural pass that was easy to defend and difficult to attack.
If he could seize this strategic chokepoint, Dongfang Mao's army could surge straight into the country, leaving the wealthy heartland of the Land of Rice Fields fully exposed to his forces.
The pass was like a key. Once he held it, he could unlock the door to the heart of the Land of Rice Fields.
Once he had clarified his strategic thinking, Dongfang Mao immediately set the next military objective: march east!
Dongfang Mao had already weighed the pros and cons of seizing the trade route and the anger it might provoke in the Land of Fire.
The Land of Fire was immensely powerful, but its defense system relied far too heavily on the Konoha Ninja Village.
Konoha alone controlled more than eighty percent of the Land of Fire's military strength.
And Konoha had only just emerged from the Second Ninja World War. It had been ganged up on by Amegakure and Sunagakure and won, but at a terrible cost.
Konoha had sent out eighty percent of its elite ninja. Hardly any had returned. The village had been badly weakened and was still licking its wounds.
More importantly, the relationship between the Land of Fire and Konoha was not a simple one of ruler and subject.
Konoha enjoyed a high degree of autonomy within the Land of Fire, much like an independent fief.
Even if the Daimyo of the Land of Fire flew into a rage, Konoha would never obey blindly.
At most, it would weigh the pros and cons and send a hundred or so ninja to make a token effort.
And for the Grand Governor's Mansion, whose cannons and firearms were already showing promise, dealing with a hundred or so ninja would hardly be especially difficult.
After all, there was a huge gap in strength between individual ninja.
There were only a handful of freakish ninja with the power to destroy the world. Some of them were still little kids, without even a hair on their chins.
They had no time to bother with the Land of Rice Fields and its ridiculous mess.
The ninja below those freaks were, at most, ordinary people with a few special abilities.
They ran out of stamina and got tired. They bled and felt pain. Their heads were cut off and they died!
Even the standard ninjutsu that ninja trained in had an effective range of only twenty to a hundred meters.
Firearms had a range of at least two to three hundred meters.
Cannons went without saying; they could reach distances of around a thousand meters.
And these days, every member of the New Martial Army practiced the Military Fist, which Dongfang Mao had renamed the "Konoha Whirlwind."
Even if those ninja ignored their casualties and made it through the hail of bullets, facing the New Martial Army would not be easy.
Combat simulations showed that a well-equipped combat unit of thirty men could use coordinated tactics to wear down a Chunin.
(Zabuza got beaten down by a few punks. Sure, he was badly wounded, but that proved ordinary people weren't completely helpless against ninja. So a fully armed squad trained in taijutsu taking on one Chunin isn't unreasonable, right?)
So the Grand Governor's Mansion could handle the Land of Fire's fury for now.
In fact, this was the best opportunity for Dongfang Mao to disrupt the current balance of the world and rise to power!
Of the two neighboring powers that could help the Land of Rice Fields, one was Konoha, which had just gone through the Second Shinobi World War and been beaten so badly it was questioning its existence.
The other was Kumogakure. It had been busy during the Second Shinobi World War as well, fighting Iwagakure so viciously they had nearly torn each other apart. Its situation was much like Konoha's; it was recuperating.
Neither had much strength left to interfere with others.
Most of the other countries were also in a weakened state.
For the time being, the Land of Rice Fields was isolated and without help.
If he didn't take this opportunity to build up his strength, then once the other countries recovered and had forces to spare, they might send their elites to eliminate this anomaly.
If he didn't have the power to stand against them by then, all his efforts would have been for nothing.
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