The people of Wakoku?
Which country in the Central Plains was that?
Hearing the name of an unfamiliar country, the civil and military officials racked their brains, trying to remember whether they had ever heard of a country called Wakoku.
But even after thinking for ages, they still could not figure out where Wakoku was.
The world was currently divided into five powers. Of the five great nations of the Central Plains, the Li Kingdom was currently the strongest overall and had the largest territory.
The other four countries were roughly equal in strength, but they kept one another in check. None dared to start a war first. After all, if you confidently declared war only for the other three countries to join forces against you, you would be the first to be finished.
As for the Li Kingdom, its three previous emperors had all been particularly fond of waging war, leaving the Imperial Treasury empty. After Lang Ling took the throne, making money became his greatest passion.
Still, if those four countries refused to behave, he would not mind sending troops over to beat them into submission.
To be honest, he actually rather hoped those four countries would lose their minds and declare war on him. Then he could move the contents of their treasuries into his own.
Unfortunately, the four countries were having a grand time playing among themselves and simply refused to let him join in.
It made him feel as though they were shunning him.
Having ruled out the stronger countries in the Central Plains, everyone began considering the smaller nations.
They eliminated one possibility after another.
In the end, they still needed Wenren Luoshui to clear up their confusion.
[Judging by the current geography, Wakoku seems to be east of the Li Kingdom, with a sea separating our two countries. Just how long have they been coveting this land of the Central Plains?]
Everyone thought, So they came from overseas? No wonder we ruled out every country in the Central Plains, big and small, and still couldn't find Wakoku.
[Come to think of it, Wakoku is a country with so many mountains and so little land, constantly hit by earthquakes and tsunamis. How did they even manage to build ships that could sail this far?]
Everyone thought, Wait!
What was an earthquake?
Did she mean the earth shaking?
Then the people of that country were certainly resilient. After all, the Li Kingdom had experienced the earth shaking too.
Every time it happened, both the population and the economy suffered tremendous losses.
Yet even the imperial preceptor could not predict when the earth would shake. It had practically become one of the greatest headaches for the Li Kingdom's officials and emperor.
[No, I have to make Uncle Emperor work hard at earning money. Once the Imperial Treasury has money, I'll get him to send troops to attack Wakoku. If we don't subdue this nation of villains now, a thousand years from now, they'll be slaughtering civilians, women, and children on our soil. Burying people alive, beheading them, tying civilians to wooden stakes to use as practice targets-there's no limit to the beastly things they'll do, only to what you can imagine!]
Wenren Luoshui mentally went over what she had learned in her history classes. Just those few things she mentioned dealt a tremendous blow to the worldview of every civil and military official present.
When they waged war now, even after invading an enemy country, they merely urged its soldiers and nobles to surrender.
Occasionally, a general who enjoyed massacring entire cities would emerge, but once word reached the emperor, he would reprimand him.
Could the people of Wakoku the little commandery princess spoke of really be so savage?
And who knew how long such a nation of tigers and wolves had been coveting the Li Kingdom?
At that thought, a chill ran down every official's spine!
Seated on the dragon throne, the emperor wholeheartedly agreed with Wenren Luoshui. The Imperial Treasury truly had no money at present. The three emperors before him had waged war repeatedly, and military expenditure alone had consumed an enormous sum every year.
After taking the throne, he had worried that continued expansion would leave the people unable to bear the ever-increasing taxes, driving them to rise in rebellion as the founding emperor once had. He had hurriedly halted the expansion and lowered taxes.
But now, knowing that another nation of tigers and wolves lurked overseas, ready to swallow the Li Kingdom at any moment, filled him with agitation.
Once morning court ended, he would summon Wenren Luoshui to his study and ask what money-making methods she knew.
[Wait, why did that female spy take General Zhu's fiancée's place?]
General Zhu thought, Exactly. Why did they choose my wife?
[Oh, so they had their eye on Madam Zhu's looks. They wanted to use her face to enter the consort selection and join the emperor's harem. But General Zhu suddenly came to ask for her hand, disrupting their plans.]
[Over the years, Madam Zhu has sent many things from the Li Kingdom back to Wakoku, such as musical scores for the qin, along with paintings and writings by deceased masters.]
[I bet that a few hundred years from now, they'll claim these things were created by famous people from their own country. Could that palm-sized patch of land possibly produce the artistic vision and spirit unique to our country?]
Everyone nodded in unison. What worthwhile creations could come from a country that treated its people as nothing?
General Zhu grieved for his beloved, who had died so young, even as fear gripped him in hindsight.
Judging by what the little commandery princess had said, had the spy in his residence sent any of the important official matters he handled back to her country?
If she had, he could not forgive his own wrongdoing even if he died to atone for it.
[Fortunately, General Zhu keeps public duty and private life strictly separate. He has never disclosed any of the important work he has handled over the years to Madam Zhu.]
Hearing the little commandery princess say that the spy had not extracted any important intelligence from him, General Zhu breathed an inward sigh of relief.
Fortunately, he had not betrayed His Majesty. Otherwise, how could he go on living?
[Still, General Zhu's fake daughter is far more cunning than his fake wife. Not only has she hooked Grand General Zhenyuan's youngest son, but she's also become bosom friends with the commandery princess of Prince Qi's household. She's on good terms with Prince Chen's heir as well. She's extracted plenty of intelligence from them, all concerning border defenses. Those documents are currently hidden in a concealed compartment in the large carved rosewood bed in her room.]
Apart from being relatively close to Prince Heng, Emperor Lang Ling was not on particularly good terms with any of his other surviving brothers.
After ascending the throne, he had originally intended to send Prince Qi and Prince Chen to their fiefs, just like his other brothers.
But the two had produced letters written by the Late Emperor himself, saying that he had promised they could live in the capital permanently.
Neither brother showed much respect for him as emperor. They often failed to salute him when they met, and sometimes even ignored him outright!
Prince Qi and Prince Chen could not hear Wenren Luoshui's thoughts. Assuming everyone was looking at them because something was amiss with their clothing today, they lowered their heads and straightened their robes.
Zhu Yulou suddenly stepped forward, knelt, and addressed the emperor.
"Your Majesty, this humble subject wishes to report his wife and daughter."
Wenren Luoshui was still pondering how to tell the emperor that General Zhu's wife and daughter were both villains when General Zhu suddenly knelt and volunteered to expose the pair.
He even revealed the military defense maps his daughter had hidden in the concealed compartment of her bed.
"Good! General Zhu, although you failed to judge their character, you have earned merit to atone for your wrongdoing. Your merits and faults cancel each other out, so I will spare you punishment this time."
Afterward, the emperor selected two more generals and ordered them to take men to General Zhu's residence immediately, arrest the two spies, and search for evidence of their crimes.
[That's not right. It doesn't say here that General Zhu discovered anything wrong with his wife and daughter. Could this be a change caused by a flap of my butterfly wings? Still, since General Zhu stepped forward to report them himself, I don't have to think up an excuse.]