In reality, the military region's finances and senior appointments were all controlled by the grand eunuchs.
All he could actually mobilize were a few border defense units and one armored regiment equipped with Gao Hai units.
To prevent the Hexi Lin Clan from growing too powerful, the grand eunuchs had summoned Lin Cuo to Luoyang after his father's death. Officially, he was there to receive a royal education. In reality, they were holding the family heir hostage at the center of power.
This background also refunded some creation points, so Lin Cuo chose it without hesitation.
The system also offered dozens of potential marriage partners, ranging from local warlords' daughters to noble ladies backed by the grand eunuchs, each with a different political value.
Lin Cuo did not look at a single one. He searched directly for Jiang Lihua.
Her character screen opened: white hair, red eyes, 125 centimeters tall.
The Great Han Federation's empress, holder of an empire-tier title, with extremely high dynastic legitimacy.
Then a long list of statuses appeared beside her portrait.
[Underage ruler.] [Entrenched regency.] [Regent: Grand Eunuch Council.] [Balance of power: level five in favor of the regency faction.] [Directly ruled territory: the Forbidden City in Luoyang and a small number of royal estates.] [Treasury control: none.] [Military command: none.] [Freedom to appoint and dismiss officials: none.] [Freedom to marry: none.]
After studying it for a while, Lin Cuo finally understood just how miserable the empress's situation was.
She was indeed the emperor of the Great Han Federation. Officials across the country were appointed in her name, the armies swore allegiance to her, and every edict bore the Heirloom Seal of the Realm.
The problem was that she did not hold the seal, write the edicts, command the armies, or even get to see the treasury.
Under the rules of Crusader Kings III, an underage successor inevitably entered a regency.
Normally, a ruler could gradually reclaim power after coming of age. But the grand eunuchs had turned a temporary regency into an entrenched political structure.
Even when Jiang Lihua came of age at sixteen, the regency would not end automatically.
She needed her own court personnel, army, finances, and sufficient support before she could shift the balance of power back, little by little.
As for the betrothal, that was not as simple as Lin Cuo had imagined, either.
He had become the empress's fiancé, but that did not automatically make him regent, much less grant him joint rule ahead of time. They had to wait until Jiang Lihua came of age to marry officially, and the marriage had to be matrilineal, with their future children belonging to the Jiang imperial family.
In other words, all Lin Cuo had gained was the possibility of participating in royal politics in the future.
"Fair enough."
Lin Cuo had no objection. He had never intended to change the country's ruling family anyway.
The system quickly generated a background that fit the existing worldline.
The Hexi Lin Clan had long had a marriage agreement with the imperial family. While the late emperor was alive, he had betrothed Jiang Lihua to Lin Cuo, heir to the Duke of Liang, to balance the grand eunuchs against the regional military authorities. After the emperor died and the young empress succeeded him, the grand eunuchs were unwilling to honor the betrothal, but did not dare openly violate his final edict. They could only keep Lin Cuo in Luoyang and groom him into a prince consort with no army or followers, whose sole purpose was to stand beside the empress as decoration.
From the grand eunuchs' perspective, he was an excellent choice.
He was young, his father was dead, he had no foothold in the central government, and his family's former retainers were far away in the west. With a matrilineal marriage, he would pose no threat to the Jiang imperial line.
From Lin Cuo's perspective, it was equally suitable.
He could approach the empress legitimately, had a military background, could make contact with Li Xingke, and could invoke the late emperor's final edict to oppose any marriage alliance with Britannia that the grand eunuchs might arrange.
He checked his character status once more, then pressed start with satisfaction.
[Loading first world.] [Integrating character memories.] [Technology tree synchronization complete.] [The system will provide the player with a beginner's surprise.]
Lin Cuo even smiled.
"There's a surprise, too?"
The next second, a flood of unfamiliar memories poured into his mind.
Today was the empress's first audience with her fiancé, arranged by the grand eunuchs.
They called it an audience, but it was really more of a chance for the two sides to size each other up. The grand eunuchs needed to confirm whether Lin Cuo was obedient.
The tiny handful of people around the empress who remained loyal to the imperial line needed to determine whether this regional noble from the northwest was someone they could work with in the future, or another leash the Eight Grand Eunuchs had slipped around her.
When Lin Cuo was led into the inner hall, the first person he saw was Jiang Lihua.
Long white hair fell down either side of her face, and her red eyes watched him quietly. An open book of ceremonial protocol lay before her.
His gaze lingered on her only briefly before shifting to the others beside her.
The system interface opened automatically. Li Xingke, standing beside the empress, had a military ability score so high it was dazzling. His strategic ability and personal combat prowess were equally astonishing, but a dark red health status hung beside them.
[Severe old injuries.] [Significantly shortened life expectancy.] [Loyalty to the empress: extremely high.] [Attitude toward the player: wary.]
Hong Gu was much simpler.
[Suspicious of regional nobles.] [Considers the player unproven in military service.] [If the player falls behind on military pay, approval will decline rapidly.]
Lin Cuo almost laughed. This lineup was actually quite good.
The empress provided legitimacy, Li Xingke handled warfare, Chou Xianglin handled organization, and Hong Gu ensured orders reached the rank and file.
If he could bring these people together and summon the border troops to the capital, purging the grand eunuchs within 270 days was no pipe dream.
Li Xingke, however, spoke first, his gaze suspicious.
"The Duke of Liang seems to have been observing us ever since he entered the hall."
Lin Cuo bowed to Jiang Lihua before answering, "This is my first audience with Your Majesty, and my first time meeting all of you. It is only natural that I should take a few extra looks."
"You have been in Luoyang for two years, Duke Lin. Surely you have heard our names before."
"I have long admired your reputations, but hearing about someone a hundred times is no substitute for meeting them."
Chou Xianglin ignored that and simply asked, "Have you come to the palace today to fulfill the late emperor's marriage agreement, Duke Lin, or because of the three memorials concerning military pay recently submitted by the Hexi Military Region?"
Hexi had repeatedly petitioned for overdue military pay, but the grand eunuchs had withheld approval. Many suspected that Lin Cuo was directing these petitions from Luoyang to put deliberate pressure on the central government.
Lin Cuo was just about to answer when a red light flashed in the upper-right corner of his vision.
The entire world map was forcibly brought up.
An expanding black ring appeared over the previously quiet Asian continent.
Its location was east of the Pamir Plateau, around Kashgar and the western edge of the Tarim Basin.
[Beginner's surprise loaded.] [The overall strength of the first world's native factions exceeds tutorial standards.] [Loading a cross-world crisis to balance the player experience.]
Lin Cuo's expression froze.
Balance what the hell?
He did not say it aloud. The system notifications continued.
[Worldline overlay successful.] [Additional scenario: MUV-LUV Alternative.] [Civilization-level hostile entities: BETA.] [Countdown to first large-scale invasion: 180 days.] [Projected initial landing zone: Anxi-Kashgar sector, Great Han Federation.] [Beginner crisis strength: twenty-five percent of standard scale.]
Lin Cuo stared at the last line and went utterly still.
MUV.
BETA.
Twenty-five percent.
The system even seemed to think it was being considerate.
In an ordinary Paradox game, an endgame crisis at twenty-five percent strength might count as a tutorial setting for beginners to learn the mechanics.
The problem was that this was not a game, and the BETA were not a country that would surrender when its war support dropped to zero.
They would not accept a ceasefire, did not care about casualties, and certainly would not bring up a peace conference once occupation progress reached one hundred percent.
They would only establish Hives, dig underground, produce more of themselves, and then clear away everything on the surface that obstructed their excavation.
Earlier, Lin Cuo had still been considering how to assemble the main cast from Lelouch's world.
Now that he thought about it, high-performance machines like the Lancelot, Guren, and Shen Hu were certainly powerful. In a war between humans, a single ace pilot could even turn the tide of a battle.
But the BETA could overwhelm an entire front with tens or hundreds of thousands of individuals.
One Shen Hu could kill dozens, hundreds, or even more.
And then what?
The pilot would tire, the machine would overheat, ammunition would run out, and parts would break.
The BETA would not decide to retreat just because they had lost a few hundred units.
Worse still, the first landing site marked by the system lay squarely within his nominal sphere of control.