Over the past ten years, the empire's armies had been at war constantly, but there had been far too many useless allies.
Every one of those powerful nobles wanted to seize land here and establish a fiefdom as a foundation for building a duchy—or even a kingdom.
Because there was profit to be made, they schemed against one another, openly and in secret. As a result, many of the Empress's war plans had failed for all sorts of reasons, with heavy losses.
"Doesn't that make you angry?"
Seeing that her sister-in-law, Ju Zi, was still calmly studying the map on the sand table, Xu Tianzhen couldn't understand.
The losses this time had been enormous.
"Of course I'm angry, but after ten years, I've gotten used to it."
Ju Zi wore an expression of helplessness, but inwardly she sneered at those nobles and their foolishness.
She had deliberately written into the conscription order that everyone was encouraged to establish duchies and kingdoms here, luring those nobles into investing everything they had.
Then she had cleverly exploited the dark side of human nature to make them slaughter one another, bringing about the situation they faced now.
"Those people have always wanted to seize the throne. A lot has happened at home. If Hall Master Hongchen and the others hadn't been holding the line, everything would've descended into chaos."
Thinking about the situation back home, Xu Tianzhen grew even more upset.
Her elder brother's death had caused all sorts of problems. Most importantly, her nephew was still very young, which gave many people—especially those in the imperial family—the sense that an opportunity had opened up.
It was only because her elder brother had killed so many people that the imperial family had dwindled in numbers. Otherwise, someone would have already come out to