Chapter 940
Bowing to Kao Dong
Ram nodded in satisfaction when he heard that the other party had finally revealed Yan's weaknesses. Listening to Tong Gao's analysis, Ram gradually found his way.
"You can stay in our Nebula Kingdom for now. As long as you behave well, we'll make sure you live a life of luxury."
"If there's anything I've overlooked, please come to me immediately. I'm confident that our collaboration will be very pleasant."
With a smug look on her face, Ram had Tonggao temporarily taken away and was treated to good food and drink.
On the surface, it appears to be a gesture of goodwill, but in reality, it is a form of house arrest, completely depriving Tonggao of his freedom.
If there's a use for him, he'll be pulled in and put to use; if he's no longer useful, he'll be discarded like a rag.
People like Tong Gao are destined for a bad end.
Tong Gao's spirits plummeted. He felt as if he had become a walking corpse, being used by Ram.
Even now, he still can't bow down to Kao Dong and still regards Kao Dong as his enemy.
He probably won't realize how foolish his actions were until the day he dies; he has no chance of becoming the ruler of Yan.
He was incredibly cruel and extremely arrogant, and unintentionally betrayed the Yan Kingdom.
This gave Ram a complete grasp of Yan Kingdom's weaknesses, allowing him to understand how to dismantle it from within.
After taking Tonggao away, Ram quickly summoned the high-ranking leaders of the Nebula Kingdom to discuss national affairs.
“I just learned from Tong Gao about the weaknesses of the Yan Kingdom. Their institutions are too bloated and poorly managed in various places. Perhaps this is a good opportunity for us to strike.”
Ram quickly shared what he knew with these senior officials so they could discuss their next steps.
"General Ram, perhaps we can start from various places and bribe local officials."
Ram was overjoyed when a senior official suddenly made this suggestion.
“It seems we’re thinking the same thing. Once we’ve got control of the local powers in Yan, we can use them to control the local rulers.”
Ram had already thought of this method, and now that he heard that the higher-ups shared the same idea, he knew that his method was indeed very effective.
Once the idea was made up, Ram assigned tasks to each senior manager, instructing them to keep an eye on different parts of Yan Kingdom.
Ram even personally went among the local officials in Yan State, looking for an opportunity to take advantage of them.
Ram discovered that these local officials in Yan Kingdom still had some patriotic sentiments and would not easily betray their country.
However, he could not easily give up on this plan, so he used a large amount of money as a stepping stone.
Lured by the potential benefits, Ram quickly established a relationship with a local official named Fei Xiang.
"It is a great honor to work with someone like you. Someone as shrewd as you will naturally enjoy endless wealth and honor."
Ram was exceptionally enthusiastic towards Fei, and naturally spent a lot of money on him.
But Ram didn't care about any of that. As long as they could finally conquer Yan Kingdom, it would all be worth it.
“I also feel extremely honored to have met such a benefactor as General Ram. I will definitely serve General Ram.”
Fei Xiang's eyes lit up when he saw the large amount of money in front of him, and he successfully became Ram's spy in Yan Country.
"In fact, the local officials in Yan Kingdom had already begun to diverge long ago, and we local officials were all centered around Jia Feier."
Fei immediately revealed more of the truth to Ram, which gave him a clearer understanding of these local officials in Yan.
"I see."
Ram was even happier after learning the truth, which meant that as long as they found Jiafeier and got in touch with him, the rest of the work would be much easier.
"So, what kind of person is this Jia Feier?"
Ram immediately developed a strong interest in Jafiel.
Now that we have a spy like Fei Xiang in our hands, we can learn more about these aspects more easily.
"Jia Fei'er is a key minister, equivalent to the prime minister of Yan Kingdom. He has long been ambitious and wants to become king and hegemon, so he has secretly accumulated a lot of local power. Now he is second only to the king and above thousands of people."
“Jia Fei’er’s power should not be underestimated. Once we get him under our control, we can basically control the fate of Yan Kingdom.”
Fei Xiang gave Ram a detailed account of Jia Fei'er's situation, and Ram became more and more excited as he listened.
This Jiafeier is indeed of great use to them; they must go through all sorts of trouble to establish this connection.
This played a crucial role in successfully dismantling the Yan Kingdom, no wonder Ram was so excited.
It seems that his approach is completely correct; by starting with these local officials, he can gain control of the Yan Kingdom.
What Ram didn't expect was that things would progress so quickly, and that he would find such a very important person as Jafiel in no time.
However, Ram also understood that an ambitious person like Jafiel could not be easily controlled by him, and he would have to put in more effort.
After having this thought, Ram paid extra attention to Jiafei's every move, knowing that this person was extremely important to them.
However, Jia Feier did not dare to make any major moves during this period.
It turns out that after Kao Dong ascended the throne, he abolished some of the previous unreasonable regulations.
This radical change shocked Jiafeier, making him realize that Kaodong was not an incompetent person.
He feared he might suffer if he made any missteps. With this in mind, Jiafeier had been much more composed lately.
He meticulously controlled the power in various places, seizing all that power for himself. Once Kao Dong discovered this, his life would be in trouble.
After careful observation, Ram found that Jafiel had indeed been unusually calm during this period, making it hard to imagine that his methods were so sophisticated.
This plan can only be postponed for now, and we can try to cooperate when the time is right.
After Kao Dong ascended to the throne, he did indeed do a lot of things and improved many unreasonable aspects.
The Kingdom of Zhuaqi suddenly suffered a severe drought, the worst in over a decade, and the people's crops failed completely.
With the fields lying barren and uncultivable, there will be a severe food shortage next year.
If this continues, famine will inevitably strike the Kingdom of Zhuaqi. The people, of course, know what that would be like, and the entire country is gripped by fear.
The seafood production in the Kingdom of Jaqi was already very low, and coupled with the food shortage, many people soon went hungry.
The starving people took to the streets to protest and demand that the king come up with a solution for them.
Upon hearing this news, A-Zhao felt his head was spinning – this was truly a troublesome problem. These farmers depended on the weather for their livelihood, and now, facing a severe drought, they really had no good solutions.
Unless he could find a way to change the weather and make God send rain, but A-Zhao wasn't confident about such a rain-making scheme.
These past few days, A-Za has been extremely worried and frustrated, but he can't come up with a solution at all.
With more and more people starving, the Kingdom of Jaguar might descend into chaos at any moment.
Aza called over the resourceful Cahill, hoping he could come up with a good idea.
Previously, Cahill had tried every means to take advantage of the Claw Kingdom, which did indeed enable the Claw Kingdom to develop rapidly in some aspects and won Azha's trust.
"The Kingdom of Jaqi is currently suffering from a drought that has not been seen in many years. Do you have any good ideas? It seems that the people are starving, and if this continues, things will definitely descend into chaos."
Aza looked at Cahill with anticipation.
"Your Majesty, please don't worry, there will always be a solution." Cahill couldn't think of a good idea either, so he could only offer this perfunctory response.
His only purpose was to use the Kingdom of Zhuaqi to attack the Great Zhou Dynasty, so he naturally had no idea how to deal with the drought.
However, Cahill also knew that this drought was extremely severe, and if it was not controlled, all aspects of the Jaguar Kingdom would be seriously affected.
Let alone helping him attack the Great Zhou Dynasty, even their internal strife will lead to chaos and a significant decline in national strength.
Seeing that Cahill had no good solutions, Aza became even more anxious.
He knew this was a very difficult matter, and perhaps impossible to resolve.
Then, the entire Kingdom of Zhuaqi will be plunged into a severe drought, with the people lacking food and clothing, and the whole country in chaos.
In desperation, A-Zhao even kept asking the sorcerers to pray for rain, but the effect was still minimal.
The news quickly reached the Great Zhou Kingdom, and General Meng Yu immediately reported it to Yang Xia.
"Your Majesty, I have heard that the Kingdom of Jaqi is suffering from a severe drought, the worst in many years, and the whole country is in chaos."
General Meng Yu gave a general overview of the current situation in the Claw Qi Kingdom, and Yang Xia nodded thoughtfully.
"Your Majesty, that A'Za is extremely foolish, refusing to maintain friendly relations with our Great Zhou Kingdom. This is the retribution they deserve."
General Meng Yu, on the contrary, felt particularly pleased and even somewhat gloated at the sight of the Clawed Kingdom.
"It seems it's time for me to make my move."
Yang Xia ignored General Meng Yu's gloating, but instead said something that was hard to understand.
"Your Majesty, do you mean to take this opportunity to attack the Kingdom of Zhuaqi?" General Meng Yu was unsure of Yang Xia's intentions.
Logically speaking, Yang Xia is not the type to kick someone when they're down, and he wouldn't attack the Clawed Kingdom during such a chaotic time.
"What are you thinking? I mean we should lend a hand to help the Claw Kingdom through this crisis."
Yang Xia quickly waved his hand, not expecting General Meng Yu to think in that direction.
He never advocated war with the Jaguar Kingdom, and he certainly wouldn't attack them at this time.
"Your Majesty, did I hear that right? The King of Azha of the Kingdom of Zhuaqi is incredibly foolish. Last time, he and his precious daughter framed you. Are you really going to repay evil with kindness?"
"Those kinds of people won't be grateful even if you help them, so don't bother."
General Meng Yu did not approve of Yang Xia's approach, believing that the Great Zhou was now powerful enough that there was no need to take the initiative to curry favor with the Claw Qi Kingdom, and that dealing with those foolish people was a waste of time.
"General Meng Yu, Cahill and Liu Zhixiu are staying in the Kingdom of Zhuaqi, scheming to sow discord between our two countries. If we don't seize this opportunity, we will miss a golden chance."
"This is a simple matter that can be resolved with our weather controller. It can ease tensions between the two countries and save innocent civilians from their plight."
Yang Xia patiently explained his intentions to General Meng Yu, explaining that he had done so after careful consideration.
General Meng Yu nodded in agreement after hearing what Yang Xia said.
Having made up his mind, Yang Xia led General Meng Yu to the Kingdom of Zhuaqi. They had a weather controller with them, so resolving the drought in Zhuaqi was a piece of cake.
Soon, they arrived at the city gate of the Kingdom of Zhuaqi at breakneck speed and sent someone to inform Azhao of their purpose as soon as possible.
"Your Majesty, Yang Xia from the Great Zhou Kingdom requests an audience. He says he has come to help the Claw Qi Kingdom solve its drought problem."
The guards told A'Za the whole story about Yang Xia's purpose.
"What? That Yang Xia is here again, and he actually dares to boast that he can help us solve the drought? How is that possible? Who does he think he is!"
After what happened last time, A-Za felt extremely disgusted with Yang Xia, even to the point of hatred.
Instigated by Cahill and Yoo Ji-soo, he was ready to attack the Great Zhou Kingdom at the right time, but unexpectedly, the other party delivered itself to his door at this critical juncture.
A-Zan had a very strange feeling about Yang Xia, and didn't know what kind of person he was.
Last time, a huge misunderstanding occurred. Yang Xia used a peculiar method to restore the truth, but no one believed his high-tech methods.
Thanks to Cahill and Yoo Ji-soo's meddling, Yang Xia's high technology has long been labeled as sorcery.
A-Zhao had no trust in such a person and dared not let him in easily.
"What exactly is Yang Xia up to? Let's not let him in, lest we cause any unforeseen complications."
"Pass on my order: get him out of here immediately, and tell him I don't want to see him."
A'Za gave Yang Xia no chance to leave without any hesitation.
"Our king said you must leave here immediately; he will not see you." The soldiers under his command prepared to drive Yang Xia away.
"Your Majesty, let's go back. I told you long ago that A'Za is an ungrateful wretch. If I had known this would happen, I shouldn't have come."
General Meng Yu couldn't help but complain again, as he was not very happy about this trip to the Kingdom of Zhuaqi.
"Does your king really have the heart to watch his people suffer such torment and do nothing about it?"
“Tell King Aza that I have brought a weather controller, which can solve the drought in the Kingdom of Jaqi in less than a day. Does he really not care about the people of the whole country?”
Yang Xia knew that A'Za held a grudge against him, but now that he was standing outside the city gates of Zhuaqi, he naturally couldn't just leave empty-handed.
The guards then reported Yang Xia's words to A'Zhao, hoping that Yang Xia's account was true. (End of Chapter)