News of King Chris's planned inspection tour of Minisia soon caused a considerable stir throughout Bagnia.
Anyone with eyes could see what King Chris intended. This was no simple tour to comfort his subjects, but a major political and military operation aimed at accelerating the "assimilation" of Minisia and consolidating the kingdom's unity.
The roots of Minisian resistance were complex and deep.
First came the rupture in their sense of identity.
Within a year, they had gone from independent Minisians to new citizens of Bagnia. The kingdom's laws, tax system, and even Chinese language and culture had swept in, disrupting their established way of life.
Many understood rationally that resistance was futile, but emotionally, the pain of losing their country and their attachment to their homeland could not easily fade. Especially when remnants of the nobility and others with ulterior motives deliberately stoked those feelings, they became silent or nonviolent resistance to Bagnian rule.
Second came tangible losses to their interests.
During the merger of the two countries, the old nobility and certain guilds had been stripped of their privileges. Their resentment filtered downward, distorted and amplified, making ordinary people more inclined to blame the various difficulties in their lives on the new regime.
Whether it was the burden of new taxes or fluctuations in the market, they blamed it all on Bagnian rule.
Finally, there was uncertainty about the future. Although the kingdom had promised equal treatment, the gulf between "conquerors" and "conquered" could not disappear overnight. Ordinary people feared discrimination and oppression, and that fear became fertile ground for discontent.
King Chris's inspection tour was intended to counteract that resistance at its roots while cleverly "baiting" potential opponents into revealing themselves.
On one hand, the tour aimed to establish legitimacy and win people over.
The king's personal arrival