In the castle of Blood Rock City, Tang En retracted the magic in his hand, and a small and exquisite gem necklace fell into his hand.
"It's done."
Tang En held the gem and coaxed Winette who was squirming in his arms to put the necklace on her. Then, his finger lightly tapped on the necklace, and with a flash of light, the devil's horns, wings, and tail on Winette's body all disappeared.
Using a necklace with a permanent transformation spell to cover up Winette's devil features was the only way Tang En could think of at the moment. Otherwise, if the people knew that the Tang En Majesty they worshipped had a devil's daughter, there would be a coup d 'etat.
"Looking at it this way, Winette is quite cute."
Aurelia looked at Winette who was in Tang En's arms. After covering up the devil's features, she had completely turned into a cute little human girl. Although her purple hair and pupils were a little conspicuous, it was not that there were no such hair and pupils among humans, so there was no need to pay too much attention to it.
"Then you'll take her back and raise her?"
"No, no way!"
Aurelia blushed and turned her back. She snorted, "I haven't even fallen in love, and you suddenly want me to be a mother or something. That's too much!"
"…"
What kind of tsundere is this all of a sudden?
"We'll talk about Winette later. Let's talk about business first. Is there any news about the remaining city lords in Grayness?"
"Yes." Aurelia turned back and glanced at Winette who was squirming around. Her eyes flashed with a hint of excitement. "Grayness has a total of 28 large cities. Excluding the 13 cities you destroyed a while ago, there are still 15 large cities. These 15 cities and the surrounding villages are concentrated in the central and northern regions of Grayness, which includes 70% of Grayness' population."
"If the city lords of these 15 cities declare their allegiance, it means that Grayness is completely under your control."
Tang En muttered, "They surrendered quite quickly."
"That's normal …"
Fiona ridiculed, "Now the rumor that Stanley angered you and in a fit of anger, you used a legendary spell to destroy more than half of Grayness. In the face of a peerless powerhouse who can use legendary spells, no matter how arrogant they are, they can't be disobedient, right? "
"What? I can't take the blame for this! "
It was clearly Horus who did this, so how did I become the scapegoat?
"I'm afraid you'll have to take the blame for this."
Aurelia looked at Tang En sympathetically. "As an emperor, it's not enough to just be benevolent. You have to use both kindness and authority to make the people submit to your rule. In the past, you were too used to using conciliatory policies. I'm afraid that some people are not very obedient to you. This time, it's just right. You can extinguish the seeds of unrest in their hearts."
Winette swayed back and forth in front of Tang En, and Tang En pressed her head down forcefully. "Of course I know that …"
Aurelia continued, "What's more, even if we don't use legendary spells, our military strength is enough to crush them without any pressure. We killed the 500,000 strong army of Grayness to only 50,000 people. Just the news of this alone is enough to scare those guys. How can they have the courage to resist your rule?"
"Audrey is right."
Fiona deeply agreed. "You don't have to show your personal strength to be a solid backing to stabilize the country. What really makes Irus strong is the various powerful weapons and equipment that you've developed. Those weapons and equipment are too powerful. This is the real weapon that we'll use to unify Prandal."
"Now, except for the Ronitant and the Ryan Empire, the entire Prandal can be said to be completely in your hands."
Aurelia looked at Tang En and asked, "Is your next target going to be Ronitant?"
"There's no hurry for the time being. Just rebuilding Grayness will be enough to keep us busy for a few years."
Tang En sighed. How could he not know what Aurelia was thinking? After all, King Oscar of Ronitant was Olina's brother, which was Aurelia's uncle. Although there was no family affection in the royal family, as long as it wasn't too bad, there was still some affection. If Tang En wanted to attack Ronitant, the biggest difficulty would be Olina.
"If you have a plan, don't worry about me and my mother. After all, we are very clear about your important mission."
"It's not that I'm worried about you. In fact, Prandal is now completely under my control theoretically."
Tang En raised his hand and slowly clenched his fist. Then, a chubby little hand began to break his fingers. Tang En's face stiffened, and the serious atmosphere instantly collapsed. He had to continue playing with Winette, and then continued to say, "Controlling Prandal doesn't necessarily mean unifying it in a practical sense. As long as I can make the people and resources of the entire Prandal operate according to my will, and the entire society and civilization develop according to my established direction, that's enough."
"As you said, although the Ryan Empire and Ronitant have not been unified by me, don't forget that Testero is now like a die-hard fan of the Datang Chamber of Commerce. The Ryan Empire has been completely connected by the Datang Chamber of Commerce from top to bottom. The Datang Chamber of Commerce products they eat, wear, live in, and use are all provided by the Datang Chamber of Commerce. Even their livelihood is provided by the Datang Chamber of Commerce. Now, the economic lifeline of the Ryan Empire is completely controlled by us. If they leave the Datang Chamber of Commerce, they will once again return from a civilized society to a primitive society, so it's impossible for them to rebel again."
"Although the Ronitant has not fallen into that state yet, that's because of the restrictions of the Ronitant's policies. However, after the last negotiation, after the opening of the trading port for duty-free import and export trade, our products will also accelerate the entry of the Ronitant's market and quickly conquer thousands of households, making them loyal users of the Datang Chamber of Commerce."
"And the next step is to use the influence of the Datang Chamber of Commerce to subtly influence their thinking and make them subconsciously agree that Irus and Ronitant are an inseparable whole. At the same time, we can also help to build some schools, factories, and so on, and carry out 'correct' historical education on a small scale."
"If the army and weapons are the weapons we use to conquer the world on the surface, then the Great Tang Chamber of Commerce is the treasure we use to secretly control the world. It must be known that in a civilized society, controlling the economic lifeline of a country is tantamount to controlling the entire country.
"So, as long as my brother-in-law doesn't make things difficult for me, I can't be bothered to care so much about him. Let him continue to be his carefree king."
At this point, Tang En shrugged. "Speaking of which, if it's really necessary to let the Ronitant return, I just have to treat the products of the Datang Chamber of Commerce differently. Only provide them to the domestic market and prohibit them from being exported, especially to some of the more sensitive and important products. This can attract the people to take the initiative to have the desire to return to the Irus Empire. I'm worried that once the situation develops to this extent, my brother-in-law will go crazy with anger …"
Aurelia and Fiona were stunned by Tang En's words, but after thinking about it carefully, they realized that what he said made sense.
What was the purpose of ruling a country?
Power?
Wrong, in fact, in the end, it was not for wealth!
Because power breeds wealth!
The king controlled all the resources of a country and had the power to allocate resources at will, so he could maximize the wealth and benefits.
But if the wealth that a king valued the most was all earned by another person, then what was the point of being a king?
Take the Ronitant as an example. The reason why the Ronitant was able to do well in Prandal was because they had been promoting trade. The economic vitality was very high, so the standard of living of the people was generally high, and the support for the king was also very high.
But if the Irus Empire interfered and imported a large number of high-quality and inexpensive advanced products, the wealth that originally belonged to the Ronitant would be swept away, and the economic level of the Ronitant would be greatly reduced.
How to deal with this situation?
Unless the domestic products were better and more competitive, and at the same time, the tariffs on imported products were raised to protect the domestic industry. But the appearance of the duty-free trade port destroyed this possibility. At the same time, the magically modified industrial products had characteristics that the Ronitant could not easily replicate. This basically eliminated the possibility of the Ronitant overtaking the domestic production.
Then there was the situation that went even further. The Datang Chamber of Commerce and the Ronitant became an interdependent entity. The Ronitant government, which could not obtain wealth from other sources, began to rely on the taxes provided by the Datang Chamber of Commerce, making the relationship between the two more inseparable.
At this point, the Datang Chamber of Commerce could actually control the economic market of the Ronitant, which meant that the Ronitant could no longer get rid of the shadow of the Datang Chamber of Commerce. Tang En had achieved his goal of actually controlling the Ronitant.
The situation of the Ryan Empire was more similar to that of the Ronitant, but more exaggerated because the Ryan Empire was now heavily in debt. The current construction work was all paid for by overdrawing the future. Strictly speaking, the Ryan Empire had now become a vassal of the Irus Empire.
But the residents of the Ryan Empire were still willing to endure.
Why?
Their lives had changed for the better!
Because for the people, they did not care who the ruler was. As long as their lives became better, they were already satisfied.
Step by step, they would fight steadily and surely. Sooner or later, the whole Prandal would become one entity.
And now, Gris was a key turning point.
A few days later, the city lords of Gris were brought to Bloody Rock City by messengers. Then, Tang En showed them the tricks in the castle.
Then, without saying a word, the city lords all knelt on the ground and swore loyalty to Tang En.
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