The doctor suffers from amnesia, but not complete amnesia.

"Just incorporate the lower-ranking soldiers of the rebellious Sixth Army. Officers can talk about ideals, but soldiers don't have that luxury yet—I know you're claiming all the rebels are dead, but you've definitely hidden a large number of them."

Nikolai blinked awkwardly. Those people were now all covered up with the hats of serfs and were clearing land on his fiefdom—which was also the reason he came up with the plan to send serfs and infected people to clear land in the north.

He intends to help these people regain their status as free citizens.

Qiao Yelan had also considered this method. The Serfs Reform Act stipulated that serfs could choose to join the army and be promoted to free citizens through military merit. However, Ursus was currently powerless to launch a war, so he abandoned the idea.

"So, what are the targets? Are there any other countries around Ursus that we could attack?"

Anatoly was surprised by his father's almost complete obedience to Qiao Yelan, but the other party had not yet solved the actual problem.

"Of course there are—for example, Letania."

[Leytania?]

The most shocked person present was not Nicola or Anatoli, but Kosice.

"Of course it's Letania—since that humiliating defeat five years ago, Casimir has been doing nothing but building fortresses on the front lines, except for constantly publicizing the miraculous rescue by Cyril Nearl, the Silver Spear Pegasus. Now, two army groups alone can't break through the defenses."

"And now that the Eastern Kingdom has become a vassal state of the Great Yan, there's nothing left to gain from Sami—so what's left is Letania?"

Corlettonia is not...

Kosiché kept her mouth shut. Even with her analytical abilities, she knew that saying certain things would likely get Qiao Yelan removed her from his list of partners, just like Vladimir had done.

"The terrible emperor of Letania is indeed dead, but that is not a reason for us to attack. Although their weak electors will shirk their responsibilities, they will surely unite to fight back if we launch an attack."

"Yes—if they don't have any bigger problems to deal with."

Qiao Yelan lowered her eyes and smiled gently, like a teacher explaining a game of Go to her students.

"Leytania once had ten districts, but since Syracuse gained independence, only nine remain. Although these nine electoral districts are still united under the banner of Leytania, unfortunately, after the mysterious death of the Witch King Herhunzoron, the possibility of unification among the electoral districts has been lost."

"The two districts bordering Victoria, and the 'Iron Duke' Wellington across from them, has never left his territory since the signing of the Treaty of Londinium in 1073—these two districts dare not let their guard down."

"The region that once bordered Gaul has now suffered heavy losses at the hands of its electoral families, and there is nothing they can do now but lick their wounds."

"The two southernmost regions, one of which is the home of the Witch King's family, the Utika family, is now a place where the nobles of the entire region are restless and eager to gain greater benefits—as for the other, considering the distance between the north and south, it is hard to believe that they can arrive within three months."

"What remains is the region bordering Kazimir, but unfortunately, Kazimir's booming commerce has captivated the Elector, and coupled with nearly a century of peace between the two countries, his army has become extremely weak."

"As for the regions bordering Kazdel, I don't think they have any intention of shifting their attention to places outside of Sarkaz, especially as the names of Theresis and Theresia have become increasingly well-known in recent years."

He patiently assigned tasks to each region, and the electors of each region willingly accepted these tasks—because they were closely related to whether they could preserve their own territories.

"What's even more interesting is that in Haydenschwell, one of the two Electoral districts bordering Ursus, the former Elector Grand Duke Leopold and his family were all slaughtered by a mysterious force a month ago, and even the Haydenschwell Legion was taken over by others."

"Right now, the nobles of the entire Haydenschwell district are vying to divide the former Elector's estate. They all yearn for their families to become the new Elector's family, and they are fighting each other fiercely."

This wonderful sight made Nikola and Anatoly breathe heavily. It meant that now there was almost only one Electoral District that could truly face Ursus. This was truly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!

"But... but even so, I'm afraid my territory is not enough to support an attack and conquest."

Nikolai was the first to realize that simple plundering was probably feasible, but it was clearly impossible to complete the attack and occupation of Letania with only two army groups and his own private army.

"Of course, I don't really intend to start a war—as I said before, I only need to prepare enough supplies for the second and seventh episodes, and fight a good vanguard battle in the Hayden-Schwell region."

Qiao Yelan certainly didn't intend to really go all out.

"Then mobilize the various army groups to make a gesture of gathering in the south. Of course, just move them slightly and treat it as a normal training exercise. This is still within Ursus's burden. After that, we can start extorting all the nobles in the region."

"Extortion?"

Nikolai was stunned.

"Yes, extortion."

The man smiled and nodded.

"So you mean we're going to launch a military blackmail, making Letania think we're going to launch a full-scale attack, but with each Electoral District having its own affairs to attend to, they certainly wouldn't want to go to war with Ursus."

Anatoly, on the contrary, was the first to react.

"Then we'll take a step back and pretend that we didn't expect it to be so easy to fight but we weren't prepared, and that we can accept reparations to negotiate. Then the other regions will definitely be willing, and maybe those electors will force the nobles of the Haydenschwell region to accept it!"

It seems that Anatoly was not a hopeless case; at least in the realm of war, he went further than his father.

"That's right. Fight a vanguard battle, and then it's all about diplomacy—in Ursus today, nothing is more important than winning another war."

Qiao Yelan began to brainwash the two military representatives.

What he said made no mistake – after all, the most important thing for the person taking over after a financial crisis is to restore market confidence.

Nikolai and Anatoly both understood the importance of this matter, and they had considered fighting another war. As Anatoly said, as soldiers, their first thought was whether the problem could be solved through war.

However, the imperial treasury could not support doing so, and the imperial army's poor performance and heavy casualties in the Battle of Bloodpeak made them hesitant.

Qiao Yelan was well aware of Ursus's current military strength, but he had no evidence to prove it to the other side.

After all, he couldn't just expose himself and say that the Bloodpeak campaign was lost because he deliberately leaked intelligence, allowing them to successfully decapitate the enemy. Then, when they wanted to finish the job in one fell swoop, he took intelligence on all their legions to the other side, took control himself, and used a highly targeted strategy to quickly dismantle the Ursus army.

As for casualties, that's because Qiao Yelan used the most brutal piece-exchanging tactic—since it's not like I'm exchanging pieces, I'll exchange! Not exchanging is inhuman!

You have to understand, Qiao Yelan has already staked the fate of the Eastern Kingdom on this, it would be strange if Ursus didn't suffer greatly from it.

So what he needs to do now is to help Ursus's own commanders regain an accurate understanding of their army's combat capabilities.

Squeezing a soft persimmon can help the physical and mental health of soldiers.

As for whether such a victory and extortion would damage the nobility in the Haydenschwell region, thus rendering them temporarily ineligible to become electors, it's impossible to legally challenge the twin empresses, who are currently like rootless duckweed.

This is truly an unexpected delight (read in a dry, unnatural tone).

Look, even the heavens are on Helena and Ivigna's side! Their killing of the Witch King and gaining their positions is simply divinely ordained.

Qiao Yelan thoughtfully considered the possibility that these nobles might not have the funds to pay the compensation after spending a large sum of money to buy the officers and soldiers brought by Ivignad and the dismantled Leopold family.

Babel will sincerely accept the various assets offered by these nobles as collateral, and provide them with a reasonable price to ensure that they can afford this war reparations.

Actually, this money was originally intended as seed money for Nikola, since he couldn't just agree to cooperate with the other party without any investment.

However, this did not prevent Qiao Yelan from selling at another price.

Chapter Fifty-Four: Political Games? Anyone can do that!

“If your private coffers are not enough to launch this first war, then I would be happy to provide you with additional start-up capital.”

Qiao Yelan smiled and said the exact same words he had said to Nikolai when he faced Vladimir years ago.

"If that's the case, that would be wonderful—please rest assured, once this operation is successfully completed, I will do my best to meet all your requirements."

"But—this is still only a temporary solution."

Although Anatoly had the reddest face among those present, he remained calm.

"The gains from one battlefield blackmail are not enough to reverse the current crisis facing the Ursus Empire, not to mention that this is just a plunder of a large region of Letania, which can only barely solve the problems currently facing the military."

“No, you are wrong, Mr. Anatoly. In fact, we only need to solve the problems that the military is facing right now.”

Qiao Yelan shook her head and corrected the other person's statement.

What exactly are the problems facing the Ursus Empire today?

"Excessive military spending has prevented the treasury from allocating enough funds to develop people's livelihoods, resulting in the empire's fiscal revenue failing to improve effectively. However, the empire's massive military expenditures have also failed to generate enough revenue to support the empire."

"Wrong. Ursus's biggest problem right now is that you simply can't collect taxes."

The two people and the snake were all stunned.

"Where does the empire's revenue come from?"

"Taxes, national foreign trade, and tributes from vassal states."

Nikolai was quite knowledgeable about this area, having participated in numerous financial meetings over the years as a military representative.

"The tributes from vassal states are a relatively fixed source of income, while foreign trade at the national level is quite dependent on luck. Therefore, if the empire wants to truly increase its revenue, it can only focus on taxation: agricultural tax, commercial tax, income tax, and customs duties. These are the four main types of taxes."

"According to the Imperial Constitution, fiefdom nobles have the right to control all taxes levied on their lands, and the Empire has no right to collect them. Therefore, this alone has eliminated half of the lands that could be taxed for agricultural purposes."

"At the same time, the commercial tax was also eliminated by this law—nowadays, any large merchant guild in Ursus will be affiliated with a fiefdom noble to legally avoid taxes. Although they still have to pay a political donation to the noble, they can also use the noble as a backer, right?"

Qiao Yelan looked at Grand Duke Nicholas.

"Not to mention the caravans organized by the nobles themselves—therefore, the empire's commercial tax revenue was entirely supported by the confiscation of property."

"As for tariffs, in fact, tariffs are used to protect domestic commerce and production—if tariffs could become the bulk of the empire's revenue, it would mean that the entire country has regressed to a completely agricultural nation."

Only after Qiao Yelan finished speaking did the others in the study understand why the late emperor was wholeheartedly expanding the number of free citizens.

Because once the caps on the other three types of taxes were capped, only income tax had room for further increases—and increasing income tax revenue meant freeing more people from serfdom to become workers, farmers, or office workers, thus contributing taxes to the empire.

Anatoly's face, however, was a mixture of red and blue.

He then realized the true motives of those who supported his plan—most of the infected in the Empire were free citizens, and the money they contributed was the real tax revenue the Empire could collect.

But he almost stripped all of these people of their citizenship!

"The fact that the Imperial Army can still maintain this size and receive government funding is thanks to Yegor Tereshkov. Each of you should give him a one-ton medal—this foreman you look down on is the only one who knows exactly what Vladimir has done."

Qiao Yelan sneered.

Yegor was indeed prepared to die, but Qiao Yelan believed it was not yet time for him to rest peacefully.

Because he's a good person—and incredibly useful.

"Yegor Terekin...the Minister of Labor?"