Chapter 542

In the great hall, the smoke dissipated.

Everyone's gaze looked at the Imperial Guard soldier who had been chosen to block the bullet fire.

This person had already put away his protective force, his chest armor was broken, and several conspicuous bullet holes were left!

There was also a protective suit under the Imperial Guard soldier's battle armor; after the bullets penetrated his protective force and battle armor, they ultimately failed to continue penetrating the protective suit.

So this Imperial Guard soldier was not injured.

But the 'Black Fire' assault rifle brought out by the Western delegation still shocked the ministers of the Great Lan Dynasty!

Being able to practice high-level force meant that this Imperial Guard soldier was at least a third-tier martial artist in the Dao-Foundation stage.

Such an expert was already the backbone of the Great Lan Dynasty.

But now, the West only relied on one weapon to give ordinary people the possibility of harming experts at this level!

This kind of gun that could fire continuously was not something the officials of the Great Lan Dynasty hadn't seen before.

The existing heavy machine guns were such weapons.

But the existing heavy machine guns used a water-cooled structure, weighed more than a hundred catties, were very bulky, not easy to carry, had a high failure rate, and the theoretical maximum rate of fire could only reach 400 bullets per minute.

Look at the assault rifle brought out by the Western delegation now; it was smaller in volume, lighter in weight, faster in rate of fire, higher in precision, and greater in power.

Leading a little in every item, together it was an all-around crushing!

The appearance of firearms had already changed the form of war, increasing the role of ordinary people in war.

But as far as the current situation was concerned, the gunpowder weapons mastered by the Great Lan Dynasty could at most threaten martial artists in the Qi-Changing stage.

Further up, at the Dao-Foundation stage, the threat of gunpowder weapons became much smaller. Even if ordinary people carried mortars, it would be very difficult to threaten experts in the Dao-Foundation stage.

The advantage of mid-level experts over gunpowder weapons made it difficult for firearms to play a decisive role in war.

But when the West brought out an assault rifle like 'Black Fire', the situation was different.

The ministers of the Central Secretariat in the great hall were civil officials, but they were not ignorant of military affairs.

The first thing they thought of was not just how much threat ordinary people could pose after mastering such weapons.

The essence of a weapon was just a tool; what determined its upper limit was ultimately the person.

The power exerted by the same weapon in the hands of an ordinary person and in the hands of a supernatural was completely different.

If a few martial artists in the Qi-Changing stage held such weapons, could they easily kill experts in the Dao-Foundation stage below the third tier?

Or conversely, if an expert in the Dao-Foundation stage held such a weapon, to what extent would the killing efficiency against lower-level martial artists be improved?

Duke Zeke said this was an epoch-making weapon, and it was really not an exaggeration at all!

"..."

The great hall fell silent.

Zeke signaled his subordinate to take the gun and sit back in his seat.

He took the Black Fire assault rifle from the other party, placed it on the table, and pushed it forward:

"Chief Secretary, are you satisfied with the gift we sent?"

Ye Zean had been calm and composed from beginning to end.

He looked at the assault rifle on the table and said indifferently: "The Western delegation has a total of seven countries; are you only sending one gun?"

The smile on Duke Zeke's face stiffened.

Duke Miller, who was sitting on his left, smiled slightly and said in fluent Central Plains language:

"Every country of ours has such assault rifles. Besides that, there are large-caliber multi-barrel heavy machine guns and sniper rifles with a range of over two thousand meters. If the Chief Secretary likes them, we can all send them."

Ye Zean nodded: "Then I will thank you all for the gifts on behalf of His Majesty."

Miller looked at him: "It seems the Chief Secretary likes this gift very much; we can also sell these firearms to your country."

These words immediately made the civil officials in the great hall change color together.

"You are willing to sell these firearms to us?"

A cabinet official couldn't help but confirm again.

"Not bad, if your country is willing to do business with us, these new-style weapons can all be sold."

Duke Zeke nodded.

"How do you want to do business?"

A cabinet official asked.

The Western delegation had long been prepared for this; after hearing this question, the envoys of the seven countries immediately took out the same booklets and handed them to the officials of the Great Lan Dynasty sitting opposite.

The officials of the Central Secretariat took the booklets and read them, and then their faces became increasingly ugly.

Slap!

A moment later, a cabinet official suddenly slapped the wooden table heavily, his face iron-blue:

"Simply absurd!"

The so-called 'planning book' prepared by the Western delegation demanded that the Great Lan Dynasty fully open up commercial trade between the Western Continent and the Great Lan Dynasty.

The seven Western countries wanted to build ports on the coastline of the Western border, open companies, and build factories in various provinces of the Great Lan Dynasty.

And the Great Lan Dynasty was not allowed to restrict commercial trade between the two sides in any form, which even included the buying and selling of opium.

If it weren't for the fact that the other party wrote in the planning book that all commercial transactions would pay commercial taxes and tariffs according to law, which could barely be considered leaving some face for the Great Lan Dynasty, I'm afraid officials would have already been unable to help but tear the booklet in their hands to shreds!

Even for the two great desert nations that bowed to the Great Lan Dynasty, the merchant caravans of the Great Lan Dynasty could not have such great freedom of trade within their borders.

Ever since Ye Zean started the Mingxin Reform, commercial trade between the Eastern Continent and the Western Continent had never stopped.

But this kind of trade had always been firmly controlled by the imperial court, and even if some forces among the people secretly traded with the Western Continent, it was just small-scale trouble.

Now the seven Western countries wanted the Great Lan Dynasty to hand over all the power in their hands, which was simply as bad as allowing outsiders to defecate and urinate at will in their own home!

Among the officials of the Great Lan Dynasty in the great hall, only two people remained composed.

One was Li Fei, who hadn't opened his eyes from beginning to end.

One was Ye Zean, who only glanced at the contents of the planning book a few times and then put it on the table and stopped looking.

All seven Dukes focused their gazes on Ye Zean, waiting for his reply.

Ye Zean pressed his palm on the small booklet in front of him and gently pushed it forward:

"Keep the gift, take this back."

Duke Zeke frowned slightly: "What does the Chief Secretary mean by this? If you have any dissatisfaction with this planning book, you can bring it up, and everyone can talk slowly."

The seven Western countries of course knew that the planning book they proposed was asking for an exorbitant price.

But asking for an exorbitant price and paying back the money on the ground.

Many things could be discussed again, and they were not incapable of making some concessions.

But Ye Zean's attitude was that he didn't even want to talk!

Ye Zean was just an ordinary person, without any cultivation.

But at this moment, this graying old man sitting there had an aura that even the seven Dukes did not dare to underestimate!

His gaze swept across the seven Dukes one by one, slowly and firmly saying:

"On the land of the Great Lan Dynasty, the Great Lan Dynasty will always possess the highest power. This point, it was so before, it is so now, and it will be so in the future!"

The scene fell silent for a while.

Duke Miller, with silver hair, smiled his signature smile again:

"As far as I know, the current Great Lan Dynasty's situation seems not good. That Buddha from Pudu Temple killed your emperor, but you still don't dare to make a move against Pudu Temple. With internal troubles not yet resolved, does your country really want to refuse our goodwill?"

These words made all the cabinet officials reveal looks of anger, but also a bit of helplessness.

Could the West, relying only on one assault rifle, or even adding some other more powerful weapons, truly completely change the strength gap between them and the Great Lan Dynasty?

Obviously, this was impossible.

But as Miller said, with the Buddhist sect not yet eliminated, does the Great Lan Dynasty really have the energy to deal with the Western Continent watching covetously?

Yesterday, the delegation encountered an attack before even entering the city, which undoubtedly made the seven Western countries more certain of the current situation of the Great Lan Dynasty.

If the seven Western countries invaded a second time, and the Buddhist sect made trouble at the same time, how should the Great Lan Dynasty respond?

The seven Western countries suddenly sent a delegation at this time because they saw the timing, knowing that this was the weakest time for the Great Lan Dynasty.

Otherwise, how would they dare to bring out such a planning book?

Those who didn't know would think that it was the Great Lan Dynasty that was defeated by the seven-nation coalition twenty-two years ago.

"Is Duke Miller representing the Sefuren Kingdom, threatening us?"

Ye Zean and Miller looked at each other and asked.

The fake smile on Miller's face gradually faded, and the fierce and evil aura hidden beneath it emerged.

His eyes were fierce, staring tightly at Ye Zean, like a fierce beast about to choose someone to devour!

At this moment, Li Fei, who had been sitting beside Ye Zean closing his eyes to rest, slowly opened his eyes.

A gaze as substantial as reality fell on Miller.

Miller's expression stiffened, feeling as if he had been pierced through by a sharp sword, nailed firmly to his seat!

At this moment, he finally experienced the feeling Saina had yesterday!

"Chief Secretary misunderstood; this Duke was just a kind reminder."

Miller's smile was stiff, and he said reluctantly.

The subsequent negotiation did not continue, because Ye Zean's attitude was tough, and both sides parted on unhappy terms.

Li Fei and Ye Zean were the last two to walk out of the great hall.

"Will we talk again later?"

Li Fei turned to ask Ye Zean.

Ye Zean nodded: "Of course."

"Then will we make concessions?"

Li Fei stared tightly at the other party.

Although he had proposed to the new emperor that he should endure for three years, it did not mean that he could accept any form of concession.

Ye Zean turned to look at Li Fei:

"I said it, if the reasoning of us civil officials doesn't work, then you will need to reason with them."

Li Fei understood.

Whether the Great Lan Dynasty would eventually make concessions to the seven Western countries depended on whether the 'reasoning' could be reasoned through.

Over the next few days, under Ye Zean's instruction, the group of cabinet members responsible for the negotiation separately talked to the envoys of the seven Western countries more than once.

Coercion and inducement, sowing discord, interest differentiation...

With the help of the intelligence on the Western Continent they held, plus the deterrent power left by the Great Lan Dynasty in the past, and various interests that could be given, these civil officials could be said to have exhausted all their skills to combine vertically and horizontally—

For example, Duke Zeke Ryan, although he was representing the Deni Kingdom on a mission this time, he also had another identity as the head of the Ryan family.

If the Great Lan Dynasty was willing to give the Ryan family more interests in private, would the other party consider putting personal interests above public ones?

Or for example, the Kalan Grand Duchy was actually part of the Sefuren Kingdom before, only later becoming independent and establishing a Grand Duchy.

The relationship between the two countries had always been subtle; sowing discord from the middle might not necessarily fail to make both sides lose heart.

And so on.

This was the way the civil officials spoke 'reason' in Ye Zean's mouth.

This was negotiation, and it was also a special form of war between nations!

It was not only slaughter on the battlefield that counted as a national war.

During this period, Li Fei stayed in the Imperial City.

None of these separate negotiations required him to appear, nor did he need to worry about them.

He immersed himself in cultivation every day.

For a natal magic treasure to upgrade from ground-level to heavenly-level, theoretically, one needed to gather the 'Thirty-Six Heavenly Spirits' and 'Seventy-Two Earthly Fiends', which were one hundred and eight types of middle-three-grade implants.

But Li Fei's flying sword body only incorporated twelve types of middle-three-grade implants, refining them into a 【Eternal Stability】 divine ability, after which it upgraded from mysterious-level to ground-level.

So for the next upgrade, he had to walk a path that no predecessor had walked.

A path that belonged exclusively to him.

Such an pioneering cultivation method could not be completed in a day or two.

It could not even be completed by one generation.

But Li Fei had mastered the techniques of the Nightmare Sect, able to simulate and deduce in dreams.

He also had the notes on the combination of law and martial arts written by Lin Tianyi during his Grandmaster and top-level True Person stages, obtained from the Xiao family.

More importantly, he had the Ten Thousand Blood Bead, and the "Five Phases Reverse Wheel Method", able to try and fail time and time again, and not afraid of being injured, nor would it hurt his own foundation.

With all kinds of unique conditions combined, Li Fei had the possibility of deducing a brand new path in a short period of time!

He had now basically determined what the first fire-attribute technique-type implant he was going to incorporate was—

Sixth-grade fire-attribute implant 【Fierce Mountain Armor】.

Sixth-grade implants, each one was very rare.

Even in the imperial inventory, there were not all types of sixth-grade implants.

The 【Fierce Mountain Armor】 Li Fei needed now was not in the imperial inventory.

Fortunately, among the exotic beasts raised at Mount Tiansha, there was the sixth-grade Fierce Mountain Flame Armor Beast.

Li Fei had already written to Mount Tiansha, hoping to exchange for a sixth-grade Fierce Mountain Flame Armor Beast from them through resource exchange.

Mount Tiansha of course did not refuse.

Currently, this exotic beast was on the way, and after it was delivered to Lanling City, Li Fei could have people start making the implant.

Southern Border.

Nanping Town, one of the twenty-eight military towns in the Southern Border.

Back then, when the First Imperial Prince and the King of Li raised troops to rebel, the highest officer of Nanping Town, Regional Military Commissioner Jiang Yufei, took more than thirty loyal subordinates to defend and resist.

In the end, they all died at the hands of the Imperial Camp Army that came to suppress them.

Afterward, eight hundred of the more than one thousand two hundred Southern Border frontier troops in the military town were taken away.

After the battle on the Bai Feng Plain, the vanguard of the Southern Border army was defeated, and the remaining fifty thousand troops who had not yet arrived either surrendered or fled.

Ultimately, fewer than thirty thousand frontier troops returned to the Southern Border.

Although the imperial court supplemented a portion of troops from various places, the total strength of the entire Southern Border was only more than sixty thousand people now.

There were only eight hundred garrison troops in Nanping Town currently, more than half of whom were City Guard troops who had never been to the border before.

When the warning horn on the watchtower suddenly sounded, most people in the military town were stunned.

Subsequently, everyone felt the ground beneath their feet shaking.

Outside Nanping Town, yellow sand filled the sky.

A yellow dragon was rolling forward!

This was a scene created by the galloping of more than ten thousand cavalry!

When the newly appointed Regional Military Commissioner of Nanping Town hurriedly leaped onto the high tower and saw the flags fluttering in the distance clearly, he sat on the ground, his face full of despair.

The flags in the distance were black, with an eight-armed Asura embroidered on them.

This was the flag of the 'Asura Army', the strongest imperial iron cavalry of one of the two great desert nations, the Xuan Desert Kingdom!

Although not as good as the Great Lan Dynasty's Imperial Camp Army, this Asura Army was also composed entirely of martial artists!

Without the slightest hesitation, the newly appointed Regional Military Commissioner of Nanping Town decided to open the city gates and surrender.

An internal strife soon occurred in the town.

This time, the soldiers who dared to resist had no chance to defend, all dying under the blades of their own people.

By the time the Asura Army arrived, the city gates of the military town were slowly opening...

49th year of Hongguang, November 27th.

The two great desert nations raised troops and invaded the Southern Border!

(End of chapter)