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

Zhao Yu put down his vermilion pen and turned his attention to Qiu Ping.

"How is the Royal Engineering Corps' progress?"

Qiu Ping respectfully replied, "Your Majesty, cement roads have been built in all the cities surrounding the capital, and the cement road construction teams in various places have been trained. They can be completely withdrawn tomorrow, and the projects can be handed over to those hastily trained teams."

Zhao Yu nodded in satisfaction.

Tomorrow I have to attend court to receive the surrender document from the Wolf Kingdom's delegation, and then I can proceed with the second step of the plan.

He paused, then asked, "How's the new Imperial Guards you trained doing now?"

Qiu Ping immediately reported: "The new Embroidered Uniform Guard is taking shape and will be ready to go in another half month."

"What about loyalty?"

"Your Majesty, these people were carefully selected. Most of them are young men in the capital who are barely clothed. They have always been exceptionally loyal to Your Majesty."

After training, they are now absolutely loyal to His Majesty, but their skills in intelligence gathering and concealment are still lacking and will require more time.

Zhao Yu pondered for a moment before slowly speaking.

"I have an important task for these novices to handle."

"The Great Liang Dynasty has fifteen large cities and more than thirty small cities. You will form fifteen teams, each with five members. Tomorrow, I will arrange for them to become the Royal Inspectorate, and they will inspect the regions in my name."

"The task of the inspection team is to check whether there are any places that disobey the imperial edict and allow officials who are already in office to take command of troops."

Zhao Yu didn't want the direct descendants of these families to take command of the troops, otherwise how could he possibly eliminate them from the ground?

Therefore, he needs to supervise the situation to prevent it from going astray.

Zhao Yu continued, "But that's only on the surface. Secretly... we need to get them to contact those illegitimate children and extend olive branches to them."

Qiu Ping was taken aback, then became worried.

"Your Majesty, the five great families have cultivated their influence in the region for many years, possessing formidable control and numerous informants. These newcomers will likely find it difficult to make secret contact without being detected. If they are discovered by the three great families, all their previous efforts may be in vain."

Zhao Yu waved his hand, interrupting him.

"Don't worry about it, just do it."

He was well aware of the consequences of being discovered, or rather, he didn't care whether he was discovered or not.

All he wanted was the process of making secret contact and extending an olive branch.

Because the five major families had controlled the Liang Dynasty for many years, they had amassed a great deal of wealth through corruption, which resulted in the direct descendants enjoying far better treatment than the illegitimate children.

But the five great families are not fools; they have their own set of family rules that bind illegitimate children.

If a child born out of wedlock is honest, then they can live a much better life in the family than ordinary people.

If you don't behave properly, you'll be stripped of your identity and become an ordinary person.

This system is simple and crude, but it is very effective in restraining children born out of wedlock.

And that's exactly what he set his sights on.

Zhao Yu curled the corners of his lips. Once the olive branch was extended, whether they accepted it or not, a seed of acceptance would be planted in their hearts.

Although Qiu Ping did not understand His Majesty's deeper meaning, he still respectfully acknowledged and withdrew.

Inside the Tranquil Heart Hall, only Zhao Yu remained.

……

Meanwhile, outside the imperial city.

The Wolf Kingdom delegation's convoy was slowly entering the city gate.

Leading the group was a burly man with a full beard; this man was Sarakaka, the loyal tribal chief of the Howling Moon Gold Kingdom, the young master of the Wolf Kingdom.

Two deputy commanders followed behind him.

One of them was an acquaintance, none other than Tuoba Hu, one of the top support players!

At this moment, cold sweat was pouring down his forehead, and he looked extremely nervous.

Tuoba Hu unconsciously pressed his hand to his chest, where Xiaoyue Jinshang had hidden a secret letter to the Emperor of Liang—a letter of submission!

Based on his experience, he was already quite adept at this kind of clandestine collusion, but this time was different.

Sarakaka, after all, followed the Howling Moon Golden Kingdom, and the iron-blooded aura she exuded from growing up in war made Tuoba Hu unconsciously feel apprehensive.

"Tomorrow we will meet with the Emperor of Great Liang to discuss reparations for our defeat." Sarakaka's voice was rough and carried a sense of suppressed anger.

Everyone else in the convoy sighed. Who could have imagined that the wolf kingdom, which roamed the grasslands, would one day come to this?

Sarakaka snorted coldly: "The wolf pack is in turmoil right now, the nine cubs are fighting amongst themselves, and they'll agree to any conditions first. Come to think of it, all this is thanks to a certain lord-killer!"

Several unfriendly gazes were immediately cast upon Tuoba Hu, who could only give an awkward smile and dare not utter a word.

Originally, if Xiaoyue Jinshang had killed the previous Wolf Lord, he should have been attacked by other tribes, and Tuoba Hu would not have been able to appear here.

However, the Wolf Kingdom has a different system, where the strong are respected.

After absorbing Xiaoyue Jinquan and most of the previous Wolf Lord's subordinates, Xiaoyue Jinshang's strength increased dramatically, even surpassing that of the original Xiaoyue Jin Kingdom.

This led to the situation where Tuoba Hu was also sent to discuss surrender.

The letter of submission was a plea for help sent by Xiaoyue Jinshang after he sensed that the other wolf cubs would prioritize attacking him.

At this moment, Tuoba Hu only wanted to cry out to the Eternal Heaven.

Why did the situation turn out this way?

He just wanted to prevent the Tuoba clan from declining!