Crown Prince of the Empire, I quit!

The young voice said decisively:

"Sign together! Put pressure on him! Doesn't he want money to maintain stability? Fine! We can lend it to him! But we have to sign a document, clearly stating the purpose, return date, and collateral! We also need him to personally promise that after this incident, he will forgive the past and won't use this as an excuse to exploit other families again!"

He paused, his voice deeper.

"If he refuses... then let Shenmu's trade routes, mining veins, and grain routes all become impaired! Let him see if, without us, his money for maintaining stability can buy enough rice to feed the people!"

This proposal is highly provocative.

Head-on resistance is a dead end, but uniting to demonstrate our capabilities and using our economic lifeline as a bargaining chip in negotiations may give us a glimmer of hope.

Shenmu's lifeblood has always been more than just coal. Through years of deep cultivation, major families control a vast network spanning mining, trade, and daily necessities.

Once these networks are blocked due to disease, it is enough to suffocate the entire kingdom.

This is the most powerful trump card in their hands.

"Don't forget Qin Ming!"

Someone warned vigilantly.

"He and Daqian's Tongbao Pavilion are stirring up trouble, and they have lethal weapons in their hands! If we start a fight here, will he..."

"What Qin Ming wants is for the sacred tree to remain in order, at least not to the point where Daqian cannot control it!"

Another person quickly analyzed it.

"We are making trouble to ask Hua Yunhong for a way to live, not to overturn the table. As long as it does not affect the fundamental interests of Daqian, Qin Ming is happy to see Hua Yunhong in trouble! Maybe... he will even secretly pass a knife to him!"

The conspiracy continued in the night wind.

A huge web woven of fear, anger and interests is quietly tightening.

In the end, a consensus was reached with great difficulty.

The major families will temporarily form a loose alliance.

In the name of sharing the difficulties, we jointly wrote a letter to Hua Yunhong.

The memorial appeared to be a sincere plea, detailing the huge losses the family had suffered in shutting down the Tongbao Pavilion business, implying that it was unable to contribute more.

In fact, it contains hidden meanings and requires clear policy guarantees and royal commitments.

At the same time, each company will secretly slow down the operation of non-core industries and create signs of local material shortages as a silent warning.

The secret meeting ended and the men in black scattered and disappeared into the wilderness like ghosts.

All that was left were the trampled weeds and the tense atmosphere that still lingered in the air.

What they took away was a secret decision that was enough to shake the Shenmu government.

At this moment, deep in the Shenmu Palace, Hua Yunhong was frowning at an urgent secret report about the border oil mine.

He was completely unaware that a storm ignited by his own hands was carrying with it the tremendous anger of local tyrants.

Rushing towards the foundation of imperial power.

All this happened before Sun Jinshan arrived in Shenmu City.

As the iron hooves of the Night Owl Guards of the Shenmu Kingdom crushed the night sky at the border, the aftermath of the secret meeting in the desolate hills was turning into silent poison vines.

Quietly tightening the neck of the Shenmu Kingdom.

A few days later.

The joint memorial was spread out on Hua Yunhong's dragon desk.

The ink was permeated with the hidden murderous intent of more than thirty families.

He pinched the edge of the memorial with his fingertips, his knuckles turned white, but there was a cold curve at the corner of his mouth.

"Sharing these difficult times together?"

He snorted coldly, and the sound echoed in the empty hall.

"A bunch of parasites, are you worthy enough to negotiate with me?"

The word "rebel" in the oil mine's urgent report burned his eyes.

Just as he summoned several internal affairs officials and was about to order a thorough investigation of the joint family, even worse news came.

"A fire broke out in the government warehouse south of Shenmu City, and most of the stored grain was burned!"

"Three sluice gates on the North Grand Canal are blocked by silt, and all southbound canal vessels are blocked!"

"The foreman of the government-run ironworks workshop ran off with the craftsmen! He said...the mine couldn't deliver any coal..."

The bad news was like poisoned ice spikes, piercing Hua Yunhong's heart.

He stood up suddenly, his eyes like a sharp blade sweeping across the prostrate messenger:

"The Zhao family! The Ma family! The Nan family! It must be them!"

The names of the leaders on these memorials coincided one by one with the carriage and horse business owners and mine owners circled in the secret reports on his desk.

The imperial cinnabar pen slammed heavily on the memorial.

"You want to threaten me with rice and fire? Tell these traitors that from today on, every grain of rice and every piece of iron will be taken over by the Night Owl Guards! Those who disobey... will be killed!"

The furious imperial edict was like boiling oil poured into a dark fire.

The Night Owl Guard's blade hit the burning oil mine.

The white hair of the Nan family's patriarch fluttered in the scorching flames like a tattered flag.

He stood at the mouth of the blazing well, his figure twisted into a grotesque silhouette by the flames, his roar piercing the roar of the explosion: "Hua Yunhong! Look at this fire! It's the heavenly fire you forced out! You've drained away the noble family, the people's hearts, and even the loyal bones of my Nan family! What's left is an empty shell, what are you going to fill it with?!"

"Fire arrows!"

The Night Owl Guards commander's eyes were bloodshot. The elite soldiers in black armor drew their bows and arrows.

But it's too late.

boom!

Without warning, a faint blue light, out of this world, exploded from the depths of the burning mine!

The light was not the fire of an explosion, but like a silent giant blade.

It instantly tore through the smoke and dust gushing from the underground fire and the neat arrow formation of the Night Owl Guards.

The black-armored soldiers and horses that were swept by it shattered and disappeared like fragile glass. There were no screams or bloodstains, only a strange burnt smell in the air and crystal fragments on the ground.

The commander's helmet shattered, and half of his face was burned to charcoal by the blue light. He looked in horror at the formation, which had lost nearly half of its members in an instant.

"withdraw!"

An unprecedented fear gripped him. That was not the power of the rebels!

That is Daqian’s weapon!

This group of people actually dared to hand over the knife to the major families!

At the same time, in Shenmu City.

The imperial guards violently broke into the Ma family's largest granary, but inside there was only empty echoes and a few piles of stale moldy grains.

"What takeover?"

The door of the Zhao family business, the most imposing business in the city, was tightly shut. The shopkeeper's face, peering through the crack of the door, showed a carefully rehearsed expression of panic and helplessness.

"General, be wise! The boss said the carriages and horses are truly broken! Look, even the wheels have been removed from the carriage shop! Repaired? Oh, the craftsmen have all been conscripted to repair the canal locks... The court needs them urgently!"

A deeper panic began to spread among the people. Grain stores hung wooden signs saying "Sold Out."

The blacksmith shop sealed its furnace, and people on the streets were talking about the blockage of the canal.

With the news of the rebellion in the South, prices soared like wild horses.

The news of Hua Yunhong's forced requisition of the treasury for maintaining stability leaked out at some point, like a torch thrown into a pile of dry firewood.

The first to riot were the starving people in Xishi.

When a group of haggard civilians tried to storm the few remaining government warehouses, the swords of the palace guards in Shenmu City finally drew blood.

An old man was stabbed through the chest by a spear, and the splashing warm liquid completely ignited the accumulated despair.

"The tyrant emperor is seizing grain! The noble families are shutting down! This is fucking rebellion!!"

Chaos spread like a plague, and the mob stormed granaries, smashed and looted government shops.

The organized city defenses were quickly overwhelmed by the pervasive riots.

There are many underworld experts among them who are constantly inciting.

And they came from the Wulin Alliance.