Li Mengdie, reminiscing about her recent gains, finally emerged from her reverie.
Glancing at the memorial on the side, she sneered, "Mother Empress, Mother Empress, you place such trust in Chu Chen, hoping to rebuild and save the situation in Yun Yue Kingdom. Do you not know that this world belongs to the Emperor and the scholar-officials? The hearts of the people have always belonged to the noble families and powerful clans, not to these commoners. Your indulgence, even support, for Chu Chen will surely lead to your own ruin."
"However," she continued, a hint of madness appearing on her face, her beautiful black eyes tinged with red, "if not for this, why would I be so eager to be enfeoffed? No matter the reason, this Prince is superior to you. Why did you choose her as Crown Prince and not me? Because she is gentle and virtuous, appearing to be a benevolent ruler? Ridiculous!"
"In such a time of crisis, the nation does not need a gentle and virtuous ruler! It needs a monarch like me, ambitious and full of murderous intent! Since you are blind, and now that chaos is upon us, this imperial throne shall be taken by me!"
"But I must thank you, Mother Empress, and Chu Chen, for offending the noble families and powerful clans with your new laws. Now, to support my rise, they have invested heavily! When the time comes for major action, I will naturally create some desperate commoners who can no longer survive, slaughter them, and then re-implement the new laws after unifying the realm. There will be no worries!"
"At that time, Yun Yue Kingdom will truly become strong, and I will become the seventh Empress of Yun Yue Kingdom! My name will be etched in history!"
"Hahaha!"
Li Mengdie laughed maniacally, as if she could already see her glorious future.
Outside Mengdie County, in this frigid winter, two thousand laborers were conscripted to rebuild the grand training grounds.
They swung their hoes, their faces bitter, tinged with unwillingness and discontent, digging into the frozen, hardened ground. Clad in thin hemp clothing, they held only a tiny stove with a small piece of coal that could extinguish at any moment.
And five li away, the sounds of battle cries rang out loudly, faintly audible even from such a distance.
There, a new army of ten thousand soldiers, led by the former personal guards of the Princess, was undergoing military training.
Wearing the same thin hemp clothing and simple leather armor, they held long spears and, under the instruction of their drill sergeants, repeatedly practiced thrusting and slashing.
Beside them, archers practiced drawing their bows and shooting arrows. A small number of cavalrymen were taming their mounts, wobbling as they ran with weapons in hand, trying to adapt to being on horseback.
In Mengdie County, several granaries and armories were being urgently constructed. Soldiers patrolled the city streets everywhere.
In the city's shops, both customers and shopkeepers sighed and lamented, worried about the changing situation. However, ordinary people in Mengdie County were only allowed to enter, not leave, making it impossible to report the news to the court.
Originally, the county had only three blacksmith shops, but ten more were forcibly requisitioned and converted into blacksmiths. Blacksmiths, appearing from nowhere, led apprentices in forging weapons, iron plates, and armor.
Textile workshops were directly commandeered to produce large quantities of flags and military uniforms. Leather shops were completely emptied, all their leather used to make armor.
Mengdie County, without any prior development, had been placed under strict military control, fully preparing for war.
Even in this winter, it could not extinguish the fervent and wild ambition in Li Mengdie's heart.
On the other side, the third princess, Yun Ting, who was also recently enfeoffed, was busy in her renamed Yun Ting County, having been granted the title of Prince Lin.
She sat by her desk, attending to a pile of official documents.
"These memorials, these noble families are truly restless. They incited my second sister, and now they are trying to incite me!"
"It seems Mother Empress and Chu Chen have truly pushed these people to their limits. Alas."
Princess Yun Ting sighed, looking at the overt and covert memorials, unsure of what to do.
If she were to rise up, she would inevitably clash with her second sister, Li Mengdie, not to mention her Mother Empress and Chu Chen. If she didn't rise up, the Yun Yue Kingdom was filled with undercurrents, seemingly on the verge of collapse. She wondered if her Mother Empress and Chu Chen could stabilize the situation, and if her second sister, Li Mengdie, would succeed.
In short, she was in a difficult position.
"Forget it, overthinking is useless. The best course of action is to seize the time to strengthen my own power."
Li Yunting shook her head slightly and wrote on the documents an order to build at least ten granaries, expand the army to a regular force of three thousand men, establish the full staff of the Prince Lin's mansion, cooperate with the implementation of the new three laws while turning a blind eye, and simultaneously distribute winter relief supplies to the common people to ensure that the young and strong among them would not die of lack of food and clothing during the winter.
She also ordered the repair of the city walls, conscripting a group of young men with grain to maintain the city walls and to simply renovate the large mansion here as the Prince Lin's mansion.
All these policies were implemented in a methodical manner, unlike her second sister, Li Mengdie, who was fully preparing for war.
Li Yunting did not refuse the allegiance and support of the noble families and powerful clans. She merely stalled them, citing that the time was not yet right, but she accepted their benefits without hesitation.
After a long while, Li Yunting finally finished writing all the orders.
She rubbed her slightly sore wrist and sighed, "When I was a princess, although I had matters in the princess's mansion to handle, it was only about financial circulation. I never imagined that after being enfeoffed, there would be so many things to do. If I were to ascend the throne, wouldn't it be even more troublesome?"
"Indeed, Mother Empress used to wake up before dawn to prepare for court. Now, I can wake up leisurely thanks to that fellow Chu Chen. It's hateful that he is wholeheartedly assisting my fifth sister and ignores me, the third princess."
"With that fifth sister's spoiled, willful, and brainless nature, how could Chu Chen possibly take a liking to her? She shows no signs of being a wise ruler. Could it be that Chu Chen is thinking of becoming a powerful minister?"
Li Yunting suddenly thought of this, a hint of sourness in her heart.
In terms of talent, character, figure, appearance, and priority of succession to the throne, Li Yunting felt she surpassed her fifth sister, Li Xinyue. Yet, she could not understand why Chu Chen did not serve her but instead served her fifth sister.
"Forget it. I rejoice in what I have, and accept what fate brings. Since Chu Chen cannot be obtained, in this vast world, there must be another person as talented as Chu Chen."
"If I wish to achieve great things and save the collapsing empire, I absolutely cannot do without talented individuals. Therefore, I will build another Talent Recruitment Hall to attract talents for myself."
"Regardless of their background, as long as they have talent, they shall be mine! I refuse to believe that if one is not as good as Chu Chen, then ten, or even more, would also not be as good as Chu Chen!"
Li Yunting made up her mind and planned to visit famous individuals in the surrounding areas in the next few days to win them over to her service.