This Isn't a Mefo Bill?

The basement of Ralte's administrative hall had now been transformed into the core intelligence hub of the "Lackeys." The air was filled with the distinctive, tense scent of old scrolls, fresh ink, and shadows. The walls were covered with huge maps pieced together from rough Colchis paper, marked in different mineral pigments with enemy and friendly positions, troop movements, and tangled webs of relationships.

Zhou Beichen stood before the largest map of the northern region, his brow tightly furrowed. Lorgar stood quietly beside him like a silent mountain, but his violet eyes followed the movement of Zhou Beichen's fingers, taking in and analyzing every piece of intelligence.

"Something's wrong, Lorgar. Very wrong." Zhou Beichen jabbed a finger hard at the area representing the domain of Gregory, Archbishop of the northern Myriad Balance Church. The enemy markers there were densely packed, far exceeding those in the other major dioceses. "Where did that old bastard Gregory get so much money? Look at this intelligence—well-equipped troops, ample supplies, morale... at least when payday comes around, it's sky-high. I've studied his territory. Average mineral resources, mediocre agricultural output. What gives him the right to support such a massive army? It doesn't follow basic logic."

The more detailed intelligence later delivered by the "Lackeys" had initially failed to fully solve the mystery. It only vaguely mentioned that over the past half year, Archbishop Gregory seemed to have introduced a new system of "pious taxes," tied to paper certificates known as "indulgences." The people could trade grain, metal, or even labor for these finely printed certificates, which supposedly offset their sins and earned them "divine grace."

It was not until several bold and meticulous members of the "Lackeys" disguised themselves as wandering scripture copyists and infiltrated the core towns under Gregory's control that they brought back the crucial information.

"...We saw it with our own eyes. The people stood in long lines, hauling cartloads of grain and carrying bundles of hides to the churches in exchange for those certificates." The captain of the infiltration team, a middle-aged man with such an ordinary face that he would vanish in any crowd, reported to Zhou Beichen and Lorgar. His voice was steady, carrying the detached calm unique to intelligence operatives. "The workshops beside the churches run day and night. And what they use... is precisely our method for making Colchis paper. Cruder, perhaps, but there's no doubt about it."

"Indulgences?" Zhou Beichen picked up a sample the "Lackeys" had managed to bring back. The certificate was indeed more finely made than their early products. Intricate patterns and Covenant Church runes surrounded phrases such as "absolution of sins" and "accumulation of merit," and it bore the distinctive seal of the Gregory Diocese. "He's using this... to trade real supplies from the common people?"

"Yes, Pastor Beichen. And not only do they promise absolution, they also... they also promise that once the holy war is won and... we are eradicated..." The squad captain paused, skipping over the disrespectful term, "they will use seized spoils and new tax privileges to buy back these indulgences and pay 'divine grace dividends.'"

"He's using future war profits that haven't been realized yet as collateral to borrow supplies and wealth from the people now..." Zhou Beichen's voice sank, as though he were savoring an exceedingly familiar concept. Then he suddenly looked up, his face breaking into a smile that mixed absurdity, realization, and intense excitement.

"Ha!" He gave a short laugh and shook the indulgence in his hand with a rustle. "Isn't this fucking a Mefo bill?"

Everyone in the room except Lorgar looked confused. A Mefo bill? What was that?

Lorgar looked at Zhou Beichen, a question in his violet eyes. Though his intelligence was extraordinary, he still lacked knowledge of certain specific historical financial creations from Zhou Beichen's world.

"A trick... someone used long ago, in a faraway country." Zhou Beichen explained quickly, his speech accelerating with excitement. "They used state credit to force through a kind of paper certificate, promising to redeem it in the future with hard currency or tax revenue. But in reality, they printed it wildly to pay military expenses. In the short term, it can gather astonishing resources and make them look incredibly powerful. But..."

His voice turned cold, carrying the chill of someone who had seen through the nature of a bubble.

"But its value depends entirely on people's trust in future promises, on the hard currency brought by military victory. Once that trust wavers, or the hope of victory becomes slim... this stuff won't even be worth toilet paper!" Zhou Beichen turned to Gray Rat and fired off questions rapidly. "How widely do these indulgences circulate? How accepted are they by the people? Are private trades allowed? What exactly is Gregory exchanging them for?"

Gray Rat had clearly done his homework and answered fluently. "They circulate extremely widely, covering nearly the entire Gregory Diocese and even beginning to spread into neighboring dioceses. Many commoners have even sold their only possessions to buy them, believing they are both proof of faith and a guaranteed investment... after all, everyone believes the holy war will be won. They use indulgences to exchange for grain, cloth, metal, and even to directly offset taxes from the church. Private trading exists too, though not on a large scale, because everyone is waiting to redeem them after the holy war is won."

"Guaranteed investment? Backed by faith? Collateralized by future returns?" The smile on Zhou Beichen's face grew colder and colder, increasingly resembling a fox that had found its prey's fatal weakness. "These so-called 'indulgences' are nothing more than another, more reliable form of overissued currency! That old bastard Gregory has used one empty promise after another to leverage resources far beyond his actual wealth, maintaining this enormous army at a tiny present-day cost! Brilliant! Truly brilliant!"

"Lorgar, don't forget who I am!" Zhou Beichen pointed at his own nose, his tone carrying a nearly ecstatic grin. "I'm a stock trader! Before I came to this damn place, my job every day was to dance between human greed and fear—to enter when bubbles rise and escape before they burst! Going long, shorting, short squeezes, long liquidation... that's my real profession!"

He drew a deep breath, as if he could already smell another scent beyond the smoke of war—the peculiar scent of a financial battlefield.

"What Xiao He built, Xiao He destroyed!" Zhou Beichen slammed the map, shaking dust down from the walls. "Lorgar, remember that story I told you? Han Xin was able to display his talents because of Xiao He's recommendation, and in the end, he was defeated because of Xiao He's scheme! Right now, Gregory has temporarily built up his army through this trick of 'paper for supplies,' but this very thing is his greatest weakness! It's time to show these barbarians who only know how to think with swords and dogma what a real market is! Let them see how the market's invisible hand raises an iron fist and smashes the bubble they so carefully constructed!"

Lorgar gazed at Zhou Beichen. He could understand part of the logic in his father's words. The idea of exploiting the weaknesses within a system itself to strike back was remarkably similar to the tactics Lorgar excelled at.

Yet he still could not fully understand how those thin certificates, though undeniably a highly ingenious enemy scheme, could in turn be used to shake an army as real and overwhelming as a tide of steel. Were faith and force not the decisive powers in war?

Zhou Beichen paid no attention to Lorgar's contemplation. His mind was racing, and an extremely sinister yet highly effective plan founded on financial logic was rapidly taking shape. He walked to the map, tracing a path with his finger from Gregory's diocese toward the territories of several other archbishops who had yet to make a move. His gaze was sharp as a blade.

"Watch closely." Zhou Beichen's voice was not loud, but it carried decisive force. "I have a plan."