Chapter 1 A Final Solution

"We must eliminate all future threats." After careful consideration, His Royal Highness the Second Prince decided to mobilize all his forces, seizing the greatest support possible at this moment, to eliminate his brother and claim the throne for himself. The Second Prince sought an audience with Ye Tao again, but Ye Tao told him that, regardless, he would take Chang Ling away; it just depended on the prince's attitude. This could be considered a very clear statement. If he could help with this matter, then Ye Tao would still help. But when Ye Tao asked him how he intended to do it, he was stunned.

Currently, the Imperial Guards in Yu Hang City were under his control, while the City Guard was under the control of His Highness the Crown Prince. The forces on both sides were about equal. Although the Imperial Guards occupied better geographical positions, stationed in and around the palace, they could reach any location in the city with the greatest speed. But the City Guard wasn't far behind. The Imperial Guards within the city numbered less than 30,000, of which 6,700 were ceremonial troops with little combat ability. Although they looked impressive, their fighting strength was questionable. The City Guard, however, had a full 66,000 men. If the two sides clashed, it was hard to say what the outcome would be. If a swift and decisive attack was launched within the city to remove the Crown Prince's control of the court, the troops outside the city would be of no use. If they arrived and the situation wasn't resolved, then the problem would be even bigger.

The Second Prince's chief officer in charge of this matter was Chang Xufeng, the Imperial Guard Commandant. He was also a collateral descendant of the Chang family, had followed the Second Prince for more than a decade, and was completely loyal. Both his martial prowess and intelligence were top-notch. At this critical moment, the Second Prince was instead pretending that nothing was happening, continuing with his usual entertainment and banquets, not changing any of the prepared itineraries. He entrusted all matters to Chang Xufeng, only requiring to be informed of the key points. This decision alone required immense courage and determination, which gave Ye Tao a new level of respect for the prince.

Ye Tao also entrusted all matters to Jin Ze. Trust was certainly not an issue, but more importantly, Ye Tao felt that he wasn't very skilled in this type of operation. Ye Tao being in the city and willing to cooperate meant that the operation could gain at least forty top-notch experts, as well as nearly a thousand soldiers with outstanding combat capabilities. The outside world had always speculated about the strength of Ye Tao's guard battalion, but according to evaluations within Dongping, the combat power of this army might be stronger than Tan Xiaopei's inner court guards. This was also the result of Tan Xiaopei's direct intervention. Compared to Tan Xiaopei, who was always in Danyang dealing with complex political affairs, Ye Tao, who was constantly traveling, obviously needed more comprehensive and powerful protection. Ye Tao himself did not interfere with the construction of the guard battalion, but someone was always doing these things for him.

His Highness the Crown Prince had also been very cooperative recently. He had originally planned to find ways to obtain support from Dongping, at least to prevent Ye Tao from rejecting him. Previously, he had been trying to facilitate Chang Ling and Tan Weizai's return to Danyang. But given his relationship with Chang Ling, especially combined with the current situation, it was clear that he was unlikely to play a significant role. More importantly, he didn't expect Ye Tao to reach an agreement with his brother so quickly. The Crown Prince was also one of the people negotiating with Feng Zi, along with several ministers. Whenever the two sides reached irreconcilable differences, he tried to mediate. But from the current situation, the differences were obviously not something he could resolve in a short period of time. The negotiating team also included the staff of both him and his brother, and there were already many contradictions. Furthermore, differences in commercial interests and authority over certain matters involved many Chunnan aristocratic families, requiring more behind-the-scenes persuasion and mediation, which couldn't be resolved in a short period of time. But the Crown Prince really didn't expect Ye Tao to decide to support the Second Prince in attacking him at this time. From the beginning, he hadn't understood the issue clearly: Ye Tao didn't need a new alliance agreement between the two countries, but to take Chang Ling and Tan Weizai back.

"My lord, it would be better if I stayed here. There will be quite a few troubles to evacuate the delegation immediately." Ye Tao asked Liu Yong to assist Jin Ze in resolving the problem in one fell swoop, and also to show off their strength, letting the Second Prince know that if he wanted to go back on his word, Liu Yong, the number one expert in the world, might also become the most terrifying assassin. What the Second Prince lacked was experts, experts of sufficient caliber.

"No, there's no need. This delegation has only a few people, mostly guards and warriors, originally for the convenience of carrying out various actions. Tomorrow, I will have some people go to visit the seawall first. Of course, they will dawdle and go there in the afternoon, and they won't come back at night. On the delegation negotiation side, Feng Zi will also throw some heavy stuff to let them have a good argument. As for me, I will be here when the attack is launched, and then it will be up to you. After all, we only have so few people. It's unlikely that we can split our forces." Ye Tao explained, "Also, the forces on the sea, Old Man Qi is said to have brought over the most elite troops, nearly a thousand people. As long as they don't attack the city, they can do whatever they want, there won't be any problems."

After thinking for a while, Liu Yong agreed. Ye Tao was extremely calm in handling this matter, and had extremely ingenious thinking in calculating the strengths of all parties and making these forces work together. Ye Tao had obvious strengths and weaknesses as a general and commander, able to infect and organize others in his own way, but in specific implementation and command, he was always a little lacking due to the lack of a solid military foundation. But sometimes, what was lacking was his ideas. He had almost included the forces from Yazhou into consideration from the beginning, and the method designed by Ye Tao, to carry out continuous attacks in one night, and to transfer the entire delegation, was also highly feasible.

Feng Zi had been flexing his power these days when negotiating with Chunnan, throwing out one headache-inducing topic after another. First, there was the issue of extortion on the trade routes between the two countries. Yes, Feng Zi had been using this kind of infuriating term from the very beginning. It was naturally difficult for Chunnan to give a quick answer, and in fact, they were at fault in this matter. This was a clause that had long existed in previous agreements, but the degree of implementation by both parties differed too much. In this one matter alone, Dongping had suffered losses of no less than one million taels of silver in the past year, which was by no means a small number. Feng Zi clearly demanded that Chunnan provide a detailed explanation, apologize to the affected merchants and compensate for their losses, and also guarantee that such things would not happen again in the future, or simply allow the merchant teams to greatly strengthen their escort forces. Strengthen the escort forces? That was a joke, Chunnan would be damned if they agreed. Once this was passed, it would be tantamount to allowing Dongping to constantly send troops into Chunnan to carry out various infiltration activities. As for the former, apologizing and compensating for losses was something the Chunnan court had never done. After all, it was still a political system where the emperor had the final say. If the government or the army did something wrong, at most they would pay attention in the future, and the victims should be grateful. Apologizing was out of the question. And guaranteeing that such things would not happen again was, in fact, not easy. On this one clause alone, Feng Zi argued with the Chunnan officials for two days.

Subsequently, he raised the restrictions on the Jiuzhou Chamber of Commerce in acquiring land and farms, and hoped that Chunnan would allow Yunzhou Bank to conduct business in Chunnan, and use weapons, military technology equipment, etc. as exchange conditions. Anyone with insight could realize that once allowed, it would be Dongping blatantly carrying out economic infiltration into Chunnan. With Tan Weixin's capabilities, with the Jiuzhou Chamber of Commerce, the Qihai Trading Company, Yunzhou Bank, and other large and small merchants who would definitely be willing to follow these behemoths into Chunnan to start their businesses, even if Chunnan believed that its wealth was unparalleled in the world, most of the wealth was hidden in the silver vaults of the people and aristocratic families. The capital that could be mobilized on a large scale would definitely not exceed the total of these behemoths. But Dongping's armaments and military technology equipment were really attractive, especially when Feng Zi once again proposed that they could assist Chunnan in training its army, and that the two sides could maintain friendly exchanges and contacts on the border, and notify each other of various troop movements. These "friendly" measures gave the Chunnan officials some illusions.

After struggling for a few more days, Feng Zi put forward the suggestion that the heads of the two countries meet in person to discuss some topics in detail. But Feng Zi jokingly said that this also required a head of state. The two sides could first meet in a neutral zone. If there was basic trust, they might consider mutual visits between the heads of the two countries. Feng Zi generously suggested that Tan Xiaopei had always wanted to come to Chunnan for fun, but it had to be under healthy and stable relations between the two countries. The head of state's trip, especially this kind of extremely sensitive trip, would be accompanied by a full set of ceremonial guards, which meant a full 30,000 troops. Feng Zi said with a sneer that with Dongping's military strength, 30,000 elites were enough to launch an offensive of sufficient magnitude.

The three proposals were increasingly tempting, but also increasingly entangled Chunnan's court and public. The relationship with Dongping was undoubtedly the biggest problem and the biggest challenge facing Chunnan. In this situation where Dongping had released goodwill, Chunnan did not dare to risk war at all. And they seemed to have captured something from Feng Zi's arrogant attitude: Dongping officials were not satisfied with this attitude.

The content of the negotiations every day could be passed on to An Ping before the night was over. And the Fuhu Tang (Tiger Subduing Hall) was also preparing. A force of the Fuhu Tang had already been placed beside Chang Ling. Although they were not under the command of this princess with a big temper, it did make Chang Ling feel a lot more confident, and also made the situation in Yu Hang increasingly complicated. However, An Ping would not be satisfied with this. His goal was far from this simple. And the fact that the Second Prince and Ye Tao had an agreement did not surprise An Ping. Among the two princes, he also favored the Second Prince. However, whether to hand over Tan Weizai and Chang Ling to Ye Tao was another question. An Ping felt that if he could grasp Tan Weizai in his own hands, it would be a very useful bargaining chip. An Ping had quietly sent Ruan Xiaowu's team into Yu Hang, lurking in the shops, warehouses, and other places controlled by the Fuhu Tang. These people were loyal, brave, and skilled, and An Ping expected them to be able to do something amidst the chaos when Ye Tao and the Second Prince launched their attack. With the help of those people around Chang Ling, it shouldn't be too difficult...