However, obtaining intelligence from the upper echelons was still somewhat difficult for the Jiuzhou Empire. After all, on the surface, they were only merchants. They might know something of the voices of ordinary people in various regions, but their infiltration of the upper ranks was certainly not deep.
Qian Renxue was exploiting this information gap, telling Leng Xiyue about these seemingly inconsequential matters as casual banter. To put it bluntly, she wanted Leng Xiyue to seize the opportunity to take some action, such as inciting the people to rebel.
Leng Xiyue understood Qian Renxue's intentions perfectly well, but she merely smiled faintly and offered a few reflections, with no plans to take further action over this.
Honestly, such methods were too low-level for her now. She had adopted that fragmented city-state system in Star Dou City because she had lacked sufficient scale back then. Continuing to do the same within Heaven Dou, quite apart from whether she would be caught, certainly would not produce better results than directly controlling the economy and infiltrating the Imperial Legion.
There were also problems of divided loyalties and differing ambitions. In short, it was hardly worth it; taking in some displaced people would be enough.
Next, Xue Qinghe led Leng Xiyue to inspect Heaven Dou's current New Army.
Heaven Dou's Imperial Palace was enormous, and the Imperial Guard was stationed around its perimeter.
Originally, only aristocratic elites could join this Imperial Guard, and every one of them had to be among the finest of the Royal Knights. However, as Xue Qinghe's influence expanded, the roughly two-thousand-strong Imperial Guard now included five hundred New Army soldiers. Their talent was actually no worse than that of those aristocratic scions; they were all geniuses from the commoner class. With the added support of new weapons, their combat