A Fierce Debate

"Your majesty," Mo Li turned slightly to the Ru State Officials standing on both sides before turning back to face the Emperor. "Fellow Official of the State of Ru, you are all enlightened and intelligent people. The State of Ru is indeed the largest and wealthiest state, yet there is still so much untapped potential among various worlds under Ru."

Indeed, as the Mo Sect patriarch pointed out, Ru, as the largest state, naturally had countless worlds under their rule, some of which had barely been exploited. Thus, it was still possible for the numerous worlds under Ru to easily sustain over a few trillion people.

"You have many territories such as Shu, Wei, Wu, and dozens of others like it that are almost completely untouched. Each of these territories can easily support an additional six to seven billion people."

"Indeed," Fang Zhaohui, one of the Ru officials, interjected. "It is true that the State of Ru still has much-untapped potential. However, it is only a matter of time before we will need to expand once again. In all things, preparedness breeds success. Conquering Ming today is better than conquering Ming tomorrow!"

"I concur," another Ru official, Gao Weiming, added, "Right now the States of Fa and Yang are facing civil unrest, the States of Bing and Dao are at war, so this is a heaven-sent opportunity. To tarry is to invite the wrath of heaven."

Chen Feng, also a Ru official, voiced his agreement.

"Your Majesty, it is not proper to delay. Conquering the other states is a moral imperative. First Ming, then Dao, then Yang, then Bing, then Fa. Only under the Ru philosophy of benevolence, righteousness, rite, knowledge, and integrity can all people under the heavens be delivered from the cruelty of war and chaos."

Mo Li took a deep bow before once again addressing the Emperor.

"Your Majesty, the State of Ru is truly blessed to have such capable ministers. First, however, let me address each point one by one."

"Preparedness does breed success. However, over-leveraging is also the road to ruin. The State of Ming, while relatively small and weak, the nation is stable, and the people are content. Disposing Emperor of Ming will earn you no favors from its people. Rather it's going to breed a certain level of resentment. It will take many decades before you can truly benefit from the occupation of Ming."

"On the surface, this may seem like a supporting argument as to why it would be advantageous to conquer Ming now. However, the next point should make it clear that this is indeed not the case."

"Yes, many of the other states currently have many of their own problems to deal with. Yet, if suddenly Ru, the largest and most powerful state, conquers Ming, all the problems they are currently dealing with will pale in comparison to an even stronger and larger Ru. Faced with such a threat, the other nations will surely capitalize on the opportunity to band together to deal with Ru. In addition, they will likely coordinate with the remaining Ming Loyalists factions to destabilize the region. In this way, conquering Ming becomes a detriment to the state of Ru."

"Under such a scenario, rather than delivering people from the cruelty of war and chaos, you will be responsible for delivering the cruelty of war and chaos directly to the people."

"Mo Li," Gao Weiming replied, "You surely underestimate the strategists of Ru. We have already considered the scenario that you have just laid out. We have already established ties with the State of Bing. This is what we call befriending the distant state while attacking the neighboring state. After conquering Ming, we will only have to deal with Yang and Fa."

Indeed this was quite an ingenious stratagem. Bing and Dao have been at war for many years. Currently, war was favoring Dao more and more; naturally, both states could not afford to spend too much effort on fighting each other least they were both taken advantage of by outside forces. As a result, over time, more and more territories were captured by Dao. Consequently, following the current trend, the situation will become extremely unfavorable towards Bing.

Therefore, Ru's strategy was to make use of Bing's desperation by entering an alliance of sorts and coordinating an attack on Dao. Then, with a weakened Dao, Bing would seek to reclaim lost territories and move to conquer Dao.

At the same time, Ru would move to conquer Ming. Due to Ru's increased sphere of influence, Yang and Fa would not spare much if any military power to intervene or take advantage of the Bing/Dao conflict. Therefore, Ru could naturally hold off Yang and Fa while removing Ming, Bing, and Dao from the equation.

Ru had already made many plans to carefully manage the Bing/Dao conflict; they had previously planted many nationalist religious cults in Dao. Once Bing conquered Dao, the cult leaders were to mobilize their followers and cause massive social unrest.

From there, it would simply be a matter of conquering Yang, Bing, and Fa.

"Actually, I had already predicted that you would try and take advantage of the war between Bing and Dao."

The Mo Sect had always upheld logic and rational thinking to be great virtues. Mastering the theory of deduction and having access to a robust intelligence network, members of the Mo Sect could, in theory, predict the events happening around the world without ever leaving their rooms.

"You must be thinking that you would be able to expend twenty percent of your forces to take Ming, then spend another fifteen percent of your forces to assist Bing, with sixty five percent of your forces remaining, you could defend yourself from Yang and Fa. However, I regret to inform you that with the help of the Mo Sect, even forty percent of your forces might not be able to take Ming!"

"What a joke!" Weiming retorted harshly. "With a mere 300 members, you think you can double the cost it takes to capture Ming?"

Mo Li chucked, his eyes brimming with confidence, "If I dare to say it, naturally, I dare to prove it to you! Here, why don't we have a war game, choose your best strategies, let him compete here with my disciple."