Chapter 381 — The Day That Changed History
Blade of Dawn · Page 1 of 4
Gao Yang was not in the least surprised by the restlessness stirring among the southern nobles and the Church. In fact, in a certain sense, the moves of the nobles and the Church had been engineered by his own hand, step by step.
The alchemical potion trade that had all but shattered the old market, the revolutionary arcane-network technology, the mining machinery and equipment—these things had brought the great and minor nobles of the South wealth they had never dreamed of. But at the same time, any noble with half a brain would have realized that in the process they were gradually coming under Cecil's economic erosion and control. On the other hand, through Viscount Andrew of Tanzan Town acting as their "agent," nearly half of the ore trade in the South now lay in the hands of the Cecil-Leslie Combine. And so the noble lords who found themselves suppressed happened to be precisely those who commanded the greatest military force in the South—after all, to control ore was to control the resources for forging weapons, and that meant the ability to raise and maintain a powerful army.
Therefore, the nobles of the South—especially those who had once been the wealthiest and most powerful—were bound, sooner or later, to regard Cecil as an enemy.
"Gold and silver flow through the lands of Cecil, and the ruler of those lands just happens to have an attackable 'weakness.'" In this age, no one could resist such a temptation.
On the other hand, since the previous winter the territory had taken in vast numbers of heathen worshippers from the Holy Spirit Plain, and this was ceaselessly fraying the nerves of the Daylight Church. Those missionaries could stir up little trouble in the South, but if the southern nobles should happen to want to move against Cecil at this moment, then the Daylight Church would have its chance to enter this region—a matter of course.
Gao Yang knew very well that these changes were unavoidable and bound to happen. So long as he wished to establish his own new order in this world, sooner or later he would clash with the entrenched traditional powers. On a transformation that touched the fundamental rules, there was no room for compromise; in the end, everything must be settled by force. And so, having realized this, Gao Yang understood exactly what he had to do: quietly make his preparations to speak with force, and then watch to see when those traditional nobles and the Church could no longer restrain themselves.
Hetty was a clever woman too. Seeing Gao Yang's attitude, she knew that what the Profound Meridian Sect had been planning all along was precisely the situation now before them. Only one thing she could not understand: "Ancestor, why must you wait for them to strike first? You know that by legal right you will always have grounds to take the initiative, without any worry of moral impropriety—after all, every noble in the South currently occupies land that was once your fief..."
"Simple—because the land is vast and the people sparse," Gao Yang answered at once. Seeing the puzzlement still on Hetty's face, he shook his head helplessly and added, "Let them gather their people together. We lob a round of saturation bombardment and a volley of ray guns their way, and it's done. Saves us the trouble of marching all over the South fighting them one by one."
Hetty: "..."
Of course, there was a certain joking element in Gao Yang's words. Strategically one might despise the enemy, but tactically one must still take them seriously. Even if they were nothing but a pack of decrepit, hidebound old nobles who had no idea of the power of Cecil's guns and cannon, the force at their disposal still posed a certain threat. So Gao Yang drew a sheet from the blank letter paper beside him, swiftly wrote two lines upon it, and handed it to Hetty: "This letter is for Viscountess Gran."
Hetty glanced at the contents. It was very brief: "The time has come to settle accounts. Take stock of inventory soon."