If you're made a fake emperor, why did you change the country's name?

The night was as dark as ink. Zhao Yu had already finished dinner, and the weakness he felt from practicing martial arts earlier was quickly subsiding as warm currents flowed through his stomach.

This is the power of diet; it not only enhances one's cultivation but also allows for rapid recovery.

After all, it's the food of a king; how bad could it be?

Zhao Yu stood up and, accompanied by Wei An and several trusted eunuchs, headed towards the imperial mausoleum.

Soon, the group arrived at the imperial mausoleum.

"Wait here."

Zhao Yu left behind another sentence and walked into the cemetery alone.

Although Wei An was ambitious, he kept his mouth shut. The remaining eunuchs who carried the sedan chair were all personal guards selected by Zhao Yu in the previous competition, so their loyalty was beyond question.

Before long, Zhao Yu arrived at the ninth floor of the Heavenly Mystery Pavilion with ease, where the nine elders were still waiting respectfully.

"Let's begin. Today I want to see the Prince of Zhennan," Zhao Yu said succinctly.

"Yes, Your Majesty."

After the nine elders responded, they took their seats on the star map and activated their cultivation techniques.

Soon after, the Heavenly Mirror began to change, slowly rippled...

At the entrance of the Prince Zhennan's Mansion!

A magnificent imperial carriage slowly drove away from the mansion gate. Prince Zhao Yuan of Zhennan stood at the gate, a simple and honest smile on his face, waving goodbye.

The smile on Zhao Yuan's face slowly faded as the imperial carriage completely disappeared at the end of the street.

A glint of light flashed in his eyes as he looked at the dragon carriage.

At this moment, an elderly man who looked like a butler quickly stepped forward from behind him and lowered his voice.

"Sir, we've made progress on the medicine you requested."

Zhao Yuan uttered only one word.

"explain."

"The Qin state possesses this medicine," the steward continued to report, "but they are unwilling to trade it privately, only saying that it will be auctioned at the royal city auction after the autumn harvest."

Zhao Yuan frowned slightly and fell into deep thought.

After a moment, he made a decision.

"The Qin state intends to use this to attract merchant caravans from other states and seize the title of 'Merchant Power.' Fine, I'll go there myself."

After saying that, he turned and walked into the mansion.

The scene in the mirror abruptly ended there, and the calm ripples returned.

Zhao Yu stared at the bronze mirror, his brows furrowed.

What medicine could possibly warrant such a personal visit from the number one martial artist of the Great Liang Dynasty, the Prince of Zhennan?

There must be something fishy going on here.

He turned to the Elder of the Heavenly Secrets Pavilion.

"Is this all there is?"

The Grand Secretary respectfully replied, "Your Majesty, the Heavenly Mirror can only trace back to the period within the past twelve hours when the target's actions were most closely related to the fate of the Great Liang Dynasty. If this is the only instance, it means that within these twelve hours, only the actions of the Prince of Zhennan at this moment were most deeply intertwined with the fate of the nation."

Zhao Yu's brows furrowed even deeper.

In just two days, the Prince of Zhennan has only revealed this little bit of information.

This can only mean two things: first, the Prince of Zhennan had nothing to do with it and was just overthinking it.

The second type is the Prince of Zhennan, who was extremely cautious, hiding even his daily routines so as not to give anyone a chance to spy on him.

This result is truly chilling.

This means that the secret hidden by the Prince of Zhennan is so great that he needs to disguise himself at all times.

That's all for today.

Zhao Yu waved his hand helplessly and turned to leave Tianji Pavilion.

He boarded the imperial carriage back to the palace and pondered his next plan.

First, continue to use the Heavenly Mirror to uncover the secrets of the Prince of Zhennan.

Secondly, after waiting two days for the Royal Engineering Corps to withdraw from the road construction project, he could proceed to the next step and prepare for a decisive blow.

……

Time flies, and two days have passed in the blink of an eye.

These past two days have been Zhao Yu's first two-day weekend since his transmigration.

Aside from needing to check the 'surveillance' at the Heavenly Mystery Pavilion every night, he spent the rest of his time enjoying the leisurely life of an emperor.

The only drawback is that the Prince of Zhennan remains inconspicuous and unassuming!

However, unlike Zhao Yu's leisure time, the entire Daliang was plunged into an unprecedented "earthquake" at this time!

The Dong family, one of the five major families, was surrounded by a large army just yesterday.

In just half a day, their home was ransacked and their entire family wiped out!

From ordinary people to high-ranking officials, everyone was taken aback by this sudden turn of events, and the Dong family became an instant hot topic throughout the entire Liang Dynasty.

The Li family's secret room.

Li Chengzhi, the elder of the Lu family, and the elder of the Zhang family reunited once again.

In stark contrast to their composure during their last secret meeting, the three of them now wore expressions of tension and anxiety, and the air in the secret room was so oppressive that it was almost suffocating.

"Old Li! What should we do now?"

The Zhang family elder was the first to lose his composure, breaking the silence with a trembling voice.

The Zhang family's status was outside the five major families, and their strength was even weaker than that of the Dong family.

The Dong family disappeared just like that, so he was naturally the most insecure among them.

"That young emperor has gone mad! He's completely disregarding the consequences and is determined to fight us to the death!"

"And the Gan family too. The younger generation in the family all said that the Gan family went to the palace to see the young emperor two days ago. I think it was the Gan family who suggested it!" The Lu family elder said indignantly.

Li Chengzhi remained silent for a long time before finally speaking:

"I truly cannot understand the young emperor's sudden attack. Is he really not afraid that we will overturn the table and completely paralyze the Great Liang? What good would that do him?"

"That goes without saying, they must think that with the Gan family as a traitor, even if the Great Liang is gone, we can still turn around!" The Lu family elder continued his rant.

"What exactly does 'little emperor' mean?" the Zhang family elder asked anxiously.

After much deliberation, Li Chengzhi realized that he was not as insightful as Gan Qing, and could only offer his two guesses.

"In my opinion, there are only three possibilities for the young emperor's actions this time. First, he listened to the slander of the Gan family and thought that our three families were insignificant, so he wanted to deal with them one by one."

The second option is to weaken our three major families so that the Gan family can eventually rival us.

The third possibility is that the young emperor's treasury is empty, and he wants to replenish his wealth by confiscating the Dong family's property.

After listening, the two looked at each other in bewilderment.

These three reasons all seem plausible, but they also feel somewhat far-fetched.

"In any case," Li Chengzhi concluded in a deep voice, "the current young emperor, with the Gan family's help, is no longer what he used to be. From now on, perhaps all we can rely on is the military power we hold!"

The Lu family elder immediately suggested, "Why don't we maintain the status quo on the surface, but secretly recruit another 30% more private soldiers from various regions, just in case!"

The suggestion was immediately approved by the other two.

The three quickly reached an agreement and unanimously approved the decision to increase the troop strength by 30%.

After the private conversation ended, Lu and Zhang spoke up, and Li Qiang, the Minister of War, came into the secret room and asked in a low voice.

"Elder, is it really only necessary to increase the number of recruits in various regions by 30%?"

In that case, the family's expenses will have to be covered by previously saved funds.

Li Chengzhi shook his head, looked in the direction Lu and Zhang had left, and whispered:

"Thirty percent is too little, double it!"

"The money and provisions have been used, and with the army, the entire Liang Dynasty will be the granary of the Li family!"

Li Qiang's pupils suddenly contracted; if the number doubled, the expenses would be enormous.

The same scene played out in the Zhang and Lu families as well.

The Lu family.

"Elder, are you saying you're secretly recruiting another 50% of the troops?"

"No! I need to think this through. We need to recruit 70-80% of the soldiers!" The old man of the Lu family revealed a fierce look in his eyes.

Given the current situation, what difference would a few more percentage points make?

The Zhang family.

"Go and inform all the direct descendants to tell those illegitimate children to secretly recruit twice as many soldiers!"

The day when the Zhang family rises to prominence may be right now!

The three elders outwardly reached a gentleman's agreement to increase by 30%, but behind the scenes, they all broke the rules.

After all, they are all cunning old foxes. Once the rules are broken, who would be foolish enough to follow the second rule?

In a short time, the remaining four major families all increased their recruitment budgets several times over, and the undercurrent of recruitment surged wildly throughout the entire Liang Dynasty.

But all of this was observed by some figures hiding in the shadows.

Encrypted intelligence messages are being rapidly transmitted into the depths of the palace through various channels.

The Imperial Palace, the Hall of Tranquility.

Zhao Yu is copying imperial edicts from other countries in the past.

Wei An tiptoed into the hall and bowed to report.

"Your Majesty, Qiu Ping, the commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, requests an audience."

Zhao Yu put down his vermilion pen, his tone calm.

"Announce."

Qiu Ping strode into the hall, knelt on one knee, and moved swiftly and decisively.

"Your Majesty, I have urgent news to report. The Li, Lu, and Zhang families held a secret meeting last night and ostensibly reached an agreement to increase troop strength by 30%. In reality, each of the three families secretly ordered the recruitment of soldiers to more than double!"

After listening, Zhao Yu smiled and said nonchalantly:

"I'm not afraid of them recruiting more soldiers, I'm afraid they won't be willing to increase their investment! After all, without some sunk costs, it's really hard to get them to agree to the later things."