It is said that in Baichuan City.

The young general who was supposed to be guarding the checkpoint was now on the city tower, speaking to a fat man slumped in a large chair.

This fat man was obese and had a gentle expression. Judging by appearances alone, he had no air of authority whatsoever.

But here on this border city tower, the soldiers guarding the city stood rigidly, with cold and hard demeanors. He alone sat there, exuding an air of arrogance.

“That’s how it is. Anyone who dares to skim off my Chong Xuan Sheng’s profits, I’ll skin them alive!” the fat man said viciously.

“What about the others from the Four Seas Trading Company?” the young general asked. “Are they to be treated as before?”

“All Qi people are to be detained for inspection and released back to their country after confirming they’re free of the plague. Foreigners are not allowed to leave the country under any circumstances, and those who try to force their way through will be killed without mercy! As for the Four Seas Trading Company… all their money and goods will be confiscated, and their personnel will be detained, regardless of their nationality.”

Chong Xuan Sheng squinted his eyes and asked, “Is there anything unclear about my uncle’s military order?”

His uncle was naturally Chong Xuan Chuliang, known as the “Butcher.”

He was also the highest-ranking general commanding the autumn harvest army this time.

There were no restrictions before the phrase “killed without mercy” in this military order.

That is to say, not only were people from weak countries like Yang and Rong not allowed to enter, but anyone within Yang, even those from powerful nations like Jing, Chu, Qin, and Mu, would be no exception.

This was Qi’s strength as the overlord of the Eastern Region, and Chong Xuan Chuliang’s undisguised bloodlust.

The man was a completely different person in normal states and when commanding an army.

“Perfectly clear!” the young general immediately stated.

“Then go.”

Behind Chong Xuan Sheng stood Fourteen, fully armored.

Compared to Chong Xuan Sheng, who wore loose robes like tight-fitting clothes, Fourteen’s temperament was more in line with this border city.

No matter what Chong Xuan Sheng said to people, Fourteen remained silent as always, and Chong Xuan Sheng didn’t mind it.

“I came so suddenly, do you think Jiang Wang will mind?”

Without waiting for Fourteen to answer, he answered himself, “Having a grudge is only human. I hope that the one named Qian will let him vent his anger.”

If Steward Qian knew that he had repeatedly run into obstacles and couldn’t escape even after receiving advance notice, all because of Chong Xuan Sheng’s secret instigation, he might regret extorting him in Qingyang Town back then.

Maybe he would, maybe he wouldn’t, but it didn’t matter anymore.

Because there was no turning back.

Chong Xuan Sheng looked into the distance from the city tower and couldn’t help but say, “I still have to use my uncle’s name to suppress the army, which really makes me unhappy.”

He was always filled with many worries and used his brain too much, so his body became less and less willing to move.

Such a large body, once it moved, had to be worth the effort he put in.

“I’m too fat, so…”

Chong Xuan Sheng leaned on the handrail and stood up on the Baichuan city tower.

“This chair… is too small!”

Qingyang Town.

Jiang Wang had gathered all the people in the town into the town itself, which was overcrowded.

He also collected all the supplies and implemented a distribution system, limiting people and quotas to ensure that everyone had something to eat.

No one could understand his decision. In the eyes of others, the only way to fight the plague was to isolate the inside from the outside and stop the infection. Although the plague had mutated and become more dangerous and terrible, the core principles for dealing with the plague should not change.

Qingyang Town had always done this before.

Suddenly changing course and gathering people together was undoubtedly a very risky decision, even though Qingyang Town had almost completely controlled the plague.

But in Jiang Wang’s view, the plague’s attack on transcendent cultivators meant that the only force that could directly resist the plague had been lost. Before there was a new alternative method, the collapse of the situation was almost inevitable.

In some extreme cases, people are more terrible than the plague!

Jiang Wang didn’t want to imagine those situations, but he couldn’t deny their existence.

In the end, his actions were not to fight the mutated plague, but… to fight the possible riots after the collapse of the situation.

Chong Xuan Sheng in the Mirage had not responded all along. Jiang Wang speculated that it should be related to the military secrets he had mentioned earlier. But now he was in Yang, and he really didn’t know who Qi’s military force was targeting, let alone what role Chong Xuan Sheng was playing in it.

But there was no doubt that Chong Xuan Zun, whom he had never met, had put too much pressure on Chong Xuan Sheng, so that this fat man never dared to relax. Even today, when he had the qualification to gamble on the table, he often felt like he was walking on thin ice.

Jiang Wang could only do his best, first to increase his strength, and second to strengthen his power. He couldn’t control anything else for the time being, and there was no way to control it.

At this time, he didn’t know about the Qi army surrounding and blockading Yang. With Qi’s strength, it could easily isolate the inside and outside of Yang, making the people in Yang blind, deaf, and mute.

Not to mention that as a vassal state for many years, Yang had never been defensive against Qi. Being defensive meant having ulterior motives, and how could Yang dare to do that?

Therefore, Qi’s dispatch of troops to trap and lock Yang was so abrupt, but it could be carried out so meticulously.

Of course, in Jiang Wang’s view at this time, Yang would eventually receive aid from Qi. After all, Yang was a vassal state of Qi, and to some extent represented Qi’s face, and Qi could not ignore it.

All the preparations he was currently making were to hold on until Qi’s aid arrived.

Judging from his contact with many officials in Yang, the entire officialdom of Yang was somewhat unenterprising and blindly arrogant.

With a hegemonic country next to them, they had no room for progress. Those who were unenterprising were represented by the city lord of Yuecheng, who could even be said to be holding a position without doing any work.

As for arrogance, the officials of Yang, represented by the prefect of Rizhao, were proud of being a vassal state of Qi, taking Qi’s glory as their own glory, and Qi’s strength as their own strength. They were all Qi people in spirit.

At least based on what Jiang Wang had seen and heard, he really didn’t think that Yang would perform well in the face of the mutated plague. At least Rizhao Prefecture had a high probability of collapsing.

Although he deduced this, Jiang Wang couldn’t save the entire situation in Rizhao Prefecture. Qingyang Town was already his limit.

Even Qingyang Town, he wasn’t completely sure he could protect it.

But once he protected it, he might be able to use Qingyang Town as a base to seize the biggest piece of fat for himself and Chong Xuan Sheng.

Imagine a collapsed Yang, a country with everything waiting to be rebuilt, reconstructing in the ruins. How many opportunities would there be in this?

And no matter how strong the external forces were, or how many people coveted this place, no one could match the innate advantages of Qingyang Town.

The prerequisite for everything was whether Qingyang Town could become the flag that didn’t fall in the ruins.

These things were completely Jiang Wang’s independent thinking.

From Zhuang, to Yun, to the Heavenly Blessing, to Qi, and now to Yang, everything he had seen had once confused and bewildered him. He had been thinking about the meaning of the country and the power of the system.

Now he was beginning to have some ideas, which may not be mature, but were already very clear.