I just reached the maximum level, and you want me to be a puppet emperor?

Chapter 435 Rebellion is a Road of No Return! (Please subscribe and vote with monthly tickets)

In the Starfall Empire, Emperor Dai Changwu is currently facing a major headache.

Even though he had long been wary of Zhu Yingxiong and had been openly and covertly suppressing or replacing Zhu Yingxiong's old subordinates over the years, this day had finally come.

Just yesterday, Dai Xiaoyao and Zhu Yingxiong conspired to launch a coup, causing more than half of the Xingluo Empire's army to rebel, and they are now able to rival him.

Now, the area south of the imperial city belongs to Dai Xiaoyao, while the area north of the imperial city is his territory, and the entire Starfall Empire has been divided in two.

If it weren't for the plan to secretly frame Dai Xiaoyao, there would have been no way of discovering that Dai Xiaoyao actually harbored rebellious intentions, and that his own younger brother was so audacious.

Both sides were regular troops, and they fought all night without a clear winner.

In order to win, Dai Wuchang went to the location of the Yongzhou Empire's garrison.

Dai Wuchang thought: I'll give you military funds and territory, so you have to help me, right?
"Your Majesty, King of the Starfall Empire, it's not that I don't want to help you, but the orders given to us by His Majesty of the Eternal Day Empire are only to garrison the Starfall Empire and resist the attacks of the Tian Ce Dynasty. This is a power struggle within your country, and we have no right to interfere."

Before the commander's desk, the garrison commander of the Yongzhou Empire shook his head with a half-smile. Although his attitude was still respectful, he never once raised his head to look at Dai Wuchang.

Help you? Why should we? With such a small amount of military funding, you expect us to risk our lives?
The garrison only numbered a few thousand. It was said to be to resist the Tian Ce Dynasty, but in reality, the Tian Ce Dynasty's army would definitely have withdrawn if it came to the vicinity.

Upon hearing this, Dai Wuchang felt utterly hopeless. His forces were currently weak, and with the Yongzhou Empire's garrison unwilling to intervene, it was only a matter of time before Dai Xiaoyao gradually devoured the remaining Starfall Empire territory under his control.

Remembering that this commander had previously received countless amounts of gold, silver, and cultivation resources from him, Dai Wuchang clenched his fists secretly.

He increasingly regretted believing in the promises of the Eternal Day Empire; it was truly a case of taking money but delivering nothing.

The garrison commander glanced up at Dai Xiaoyao's dejected appearance and said in a serious tone, "Your Majesty, although we cannot intervene, it does not mean we cannot offer you some assistance. After all, you are a very good friend of mine!"

As soon as the commander finished speaking, he gave a wink to the deputy general who was waiting beside him.

The vice-general clapped his hands in understanding, and soon two soldiers from the Eternal Day Empire walked in, each carrying a set of armor and a spear inlaid with Thunderstone.

The commander gestured to Dai Changwu, indicating that Dai Changwu could come forward to take a look.

Dai Changwu waved to the ministers standing behind him.

Before long, the minister came to Dai Changwu's side excitedly and reported: "Your Majesty, it is a more sophisticated piece of equipment than the standard equipment that was previously sold to us, and it is also inlaid with extremely high-quality Thunder Essence Stones!"

Upon hearing this, Dai Changwu immediately stood up and strode over to the two Eternal Day Empire soldiers carrying equipment, examining them closely.

If the Eternal Day Empire had previously sold him usable junk, then what he was now could be considered "powerful" equipment. Of course, this so-called "powerful" only applied to the Starfall Empire.

If he could equip all his troops with these elite standard-issue weapons from Yongzhou, he might be able to challenge the currently powerful "Little Tian Ce" Bai Fan Kingdom, not to mention the rebel army of the Xingluo Empire under Dai Xiaoyao!

As the king of the Starfall Empire, how could he not know what kind of equipment his army was equipped with?

Equipment inlaid with gemstones can greatly enhance a soldier's combat effectiveness.

In essence, warfare, unless it's a crushing defeat, is a war of attrition. Seeing Dai Wuchang's performance, the commander nodded in satisfaction, then smiled and said, "Your Majesty King Xingluo, you know what this equipment represents, right? I'm risking reprimand from our esteemed Emperor Yongzhou Empire by making this decision to sell you this equipment; no one else can possibly buy such good stuff!"

When the commander learned of the internal strife in the Starfall Empire, he was overjoyed. The main purpose of the Eternal Day Empire sending them here was to plunder the wealth of the southern countries. Now that the Starfall Empire was in turmoil, wasn't this a good opportunity to sell them off at a high price?

Your Majesty is blaming me? Even if the equipment we have now is not the standard equipment that the Eternal Day Empire has phased out, but rather defective products from the Eternal Day Empire's regular army, wouldn't it be better to sell them to get promoted and make a fortune?

Faced with the commander's words about "more money," Dai Changwu gritted his teeth and replied without hesitation, "General, rest assured, I will definitely not make things difficult for you!"

Even if his entire army were equipped with the standard equipment of the Eternal Day Empire, even if they were only equipped with one-fifth of it, they would still be able to crush Dai Xiaoyao's rebel army.

Compared to the precarious throne, what does spending some resources and money matter?
If we can get our hands on these weapons, we can start invading neighboring countries after quelling the internal strife and earn back ten or even a hundred times the amount!
Having thought everything through, Dai Wuchang immediately ordered 10,000 sets!

It wasn't that Dai Changwu didn't want more, but rather that the garrison commander only had 10,000 sets left. If he had more, he would definitely have tricked Dai Changwu.

The news quickly reached Dai Xiaoyao's ears. At that moment, Dai Xiaoyao and Zhu Yingxiong were discussing matters in the Imperial Study of the newly occupied palace.

"Uncle, my brother ordered ten thousand sets of elite standard equipment from the Yongzhou Empire, and they've already sent a challenge, saying they'll fight us to the death in the Pingdingpo area outside the city in three days. Can we..."

Dai Xiaoyao stopped mid-sentence, but what he meant was that he wanted Zhu Yingxiong to contact Zhu Zhuying to see if they could get some standard equipment from the Tian Ce Empire.

They sent envoys to contact the Tian Ce Empire when they rebelled, but they received no reply and didn't care about them at all.

You used to be loyal ministers, but now you insist on taking sides.

There's no time to prove their loyalty now. The situation has far exceeded their control. You have to understand that the Baifan Kingdom, with its ordinary standard equipment from the Tiance Empire, crushed the Wuluoya Empire, which is dozens of times larger than them. And Dai Wuchang, with his elite standard equipment from the Yongzhou Empire, is still crushing these rebels.

"Your Majesty, according to our envoy's report, my daughter is not in the Tian Ce Empire's palace. However, why don't we contact the Bai Fan Kingdom? As the saying goes, all men are driven by profit. This old minister will take a trip there with substantial benefits and promise to stand with the Bai Fan Kingdom after quelling the internal strife. They have now seized half of the Wu Luo Ya Kingdom's territory; the Wu Luo Ya Kingdom will surely call for help."
"They must need reinforcements at this time. Even if they can't send troops to support us, selling us some equipment would be helpful. I heard they got quite a lot of equipment from Tian Ce," Zhu Yingxiong said thoughtfully.

Rebellion is a one-way street; once you've started, you can only go all the way down that path.

"Thank you for your trouble, Uncle." Dai Xiaoyao nodded solemnly, feeling nothing in his heart.

He was still a novice when it came to this kind of thing, so he had to listen to the old general.

Soon, news came back from Baifan Kingdom that they were not only willing to sign an alliance with Dai Wuchang, but also guaranteed that Tian Ce Empire would have a surplus of weapons and armor.

They also told the truth that they definitely couldn't sell it at the original price because they had put a lot of effort into buying those equipment, and they were only available at a price they couldn't find elsewhere. They also had to pay for shipping and other expenses. If Dai Xiaoyao wanted to buy it, they could give him a portion of it, but it would definitely be several times more expensive. They were quite generous.

After all, if we're going to form an alliance, we need to show sincerity and not take the opportunity to extort money from Starfall Kingdom.

If they try to extort us now, Xingluo Kingdom will swallow its pride and bear it, but once the crisis is over, they'll probably just offer a perfunctory rescue, so there's no need for that.

King Baifan still learned a lot from the late Emperor Tiance.

(End of this chapter)