Empress, please lay down your armor, for I will save the world with a single sword!

Shangguan Na remained silent.

After a good ten seconds, she finally suppressed her anxiety and laughed.

"Heh." She smirked, a hint of disdain in her voice. "Who told you... the Great Khan wants to recall my father? You actually believed hearsay, baseless rumors?"

"The top-ranking secret agent of the Dragon Guard Manor, is this all the skill he has? He can't even distinguish between true and false information? It's laughable!"

Shangguan Na shook her head repeatedly, glanced sideways at Wu Liang, and said loudly, "Our Great Yuan has a vast territory, stretching for thousands of miles! Herds of cattle and sheep cover the mountains and plains in countless numbers! How could we be troubled by just getting through a mere winter? You are... underestimating our Great Yuan!"

"If our Great Yuan Dynasty couldn't even supply enough food for its own people, how could we have advanced ten thousand miles westward, our iron hooves sweeping across the land and conquering more than twenty countries? We would have starved to death on the road long ago!"

These words were spoken with force and pride.

If an ordinary person heard this, they might be intimidated by the imposing manner and think that the northern desert has a rich history and is not short of food.

But who is Wu Liang?

He has lived two lives, and his mind is filled with the overpowered knowledge of the history of another world.

He knew the strengths and weaknesses of the steppe empire perfectly.

After listening to Shangguan Na's impassioned speech, Wu Liang was not intimidated at all; instead, he burst out laughing.

He looked at Shangguan Na with a mocking smile and said sarcastically, "Princess, you might be able to fool others with those words. But they won't work on me at all."

"I admit that the fighting power of your Great Yuan Dynasty is unparalleled in the world. Your iron cavalry is like the wind, swift as lightning, charging into battle and dominating the world. This is beyond question, it's a fact."

Then, he changed the subject: "But in terms of food supplies... you're really not that great. Or rather, that's your only weakness."

"The reason you were able to advance ten thousand miles westward and conquer more than twenty countries was due not only to your unparalleled cavalry mobility and combat power, but also, most importantly, to your strategy..."

He paused, then uttered four words.

"Using war to sustain war."

To put it bluntly...

Wu Liang shrugged and chuckled, "Most of what you eat, drink, wear, and use... is looted! After looting one place, we eat and drink our fill, replenish our supplies, and then ride off on horseback, dragging our looted goods, to loot the next place."

"You plunder and fight your way through, using plunder to maintain the operation and expansion of your army. This is the essence of your steppe empire's conquest model, and also its predicament. Because you lack a stable, large-scale agricultural production base, you cannot establish a vast and stable logistical supply line like the Central Plains dynasties."

"Therefore, the success of the western expedition can only prove your efficiency in using local resources and sustaining the war with war, but conversely, it also exposed the inherent vulnerability of your local logistical support, especially in terms of reserves to cope with the severe winter."

"Princess!"

"Let's be honest with each other, stop playing those fancy tricks, and speak frankly."

"How much pressure is the Prince of Shuoning under now? Is the granary in Tieli City full? If there is no harvest this year, what will happen to his position in the Golden Horde this winter and even next year...?"

Wu Liang stared into Shangguan Na's eyes and slowly said, "You know best."

He leaned back in his chair, his tone becoming resolute, "I'm putting my words here. This year, if our efforts to plunder are unsuccessful again, if we can't produce any decent results or spoils..."

"King Shuoning... must leave Tieli City. The royal court's transfer order is probably already on its way, or perhaps it's just lacking a suitable excuse and opportunity."

Shangguan Na's face immediately turned extremely ugly.

Her lips were pressed tightly together, and her knuckles cracked as she gripped the fan. Her beautiful eyes were filled with raging anger.

She stared intently at Wu Liang, as if she wanted to tear him to pieces with her gaze.

After a long pause, she finally managed to squeeze out a harsh sentence through gritted teeth, "Hmph! So what if I leave?"

She raised her chin, trying to appear indifferent.

"Back in the Golden Horde, we can race horses, drink wine, sing, and dance! Life will be just as comfortable! A million times more comfortable than the exhausting struggles in Iron Plow City, a place of constant warfare!"

"Hahahahaha!!!"

Without warning, Wu Liang suddenly burst into an extremely loud laugh, laughing so hard he almost cried.

The laughter echoed in the quiet private room, sounding particularly jarring.

Shangguan Na stood there, her beautiful eyes wide open, staring intently at Wu Liang, who was still clutching his stomach and his shoulders trembling. She demanded in a low voice, "What are you laughing at?!"

Wu Liang stopped laughing, wiped away the tears that had come out of his eyes, and looked up at her.

"I'm laughing... I'm laughing at you, Princess."

He shook his head, a half-smile on his face, and asked, "Princess, what you just said... about going back to the Golden Horde to race horses, drink wine, sing and dance, and be a million times more comfortable..."

"Do you even believe these things yourself?"

Shangguan Na's lips moved as if she wanted to refute, but Wu Liang's next words silenced her.

"Do you think that your father, King Shuoning, Hadan Ulantu, was a powerful figure who dominated the region for decades, commanding a large army and commanding thousands of cavalry at a single command, making the entire southern desert tremble..."

Wu Liang paused, then raised his voice: "Can he really be content to go back to being a powerless, soldierless rich man who spends his days riding horses, drinking, and having to be subservient to others?"

"Does he really feel...happy those days?"

Shangguan Na's face paled, and she blurted out instinctively, "Why not!"

"Princess," Wu Liang said slowly, "we Han people have an old saying: 'A great man cannot be without power for a single day.' Especially for someone like your father. Power, troops, territory, conquest... these are etched into his bones, becoming a part of his life, even his very destiny."

He looked intently at Shangguan Na, his tone turning serious: "Make him lay down his sword, remove his armor, leave the Iron Plow City he has cultivated for so many years, leave the thousands of iron cavalry that obey his commands, return to the Khan's court, watch others enjoy their glory while he can only reminisce about the past... that sense of loss, that frustration, that feeling of a hero's end..."

"He can't stand it. Absolutely can't stand it!!"

"Princess, please stop deceiving yourself. Don't try to fob me off with these words; it's useless."

Wu Liang sat up straight and looked at Shangguan Na seriously, saying, "Let's be frank."

"Your condition of three million shi of grain? No. His Highness Prince Qing will not give it, nor can he give that much."

"Ceding the sixteen prefectures of Beiyong is even more impossible. Those are the territory of the Great Zhou Dynasty; how could we so easily give them to outsiders?"

"As for the border defense deployment map of Beiyong..."

He shrugged. "I don't have any here either. That's top secret in Beiyong. Where am I, an outsider, supposed to get it?"

Then, looking at Shangguan Na's increasingly grim expression, Wu Liang said calmly, "So, whether or not the Prince of Shuoning will go south, whether or not he will seek revenge, or whether or not he will restrain Pei Xiao..."

He paused, then uttered four words.

"As you see fit."

"Download if you want, don't download if you don't."

……