After Defeat, the Empress’s Negotiating Chip Turns Out to Be Me

Chapter 143

143~ The Empress's Strategy~

"Your Majesty, I'm afraid I cannot handle this."

"If I say you can, then you can. People outside don't understand me, but surely you do? You just need to stay in the palace properly these few days. I'll tell the outside world that I'm tired and need to rest for a few days."

Faced with the Empress's forceful order, Ling could only choose to accept.

"You should know Disguise Magic, right?"

"Yes."

"Then do as I usually do when resting. How I rest is how you do it. Understand?"

"Understood."

Faced with the Empress's forceful demand, even if she'd never done this kind of thing, she had to bite the bullet and do it.

"Then Your Majesty, does the Scarlet Maid Corps need to be informed?"

"You decide. If you think you can play me well, then there's no need."

After giving instructions to the Maid Ling, she continued to focus her attention on the issue of military authority allocation.

Military authority could never truly be delegated to subordinate generals. Even her confidant General Qin was the same. But it also couldn't be handed over to the Maid Ling to manage.

It wasn't that she thought Ling would rebel, but rather she felt Ling probably couldn't properly control military authority.

Although she'd learned many political matters by her side, theory and practice were completely different things. Even if she'd watched countless times, she couldn't possibly have learned how to handle state affairs. Controlling military authority was the same.

Ling didn't have the ability to properly control military authority. Those maids in the Scarlet Maid Corps didn't either. She'd always monopolized military authority. People around her had never touched military authority, so no matter who she handed it to, she wasn't at ease. She could only arrange everything in advance.

"Ling."

"Please give your orders, Your Majesty."

"Help me change clothes."

"Alright."

She hadn't left the Council Hall for quite a while now. Although she used Purification Magic every day to keep her body clean, she still hadn't bathed in a long time, nor changed clothes. It still felt somewhat uncomfortable.

However, right now there was no time for her to be uncomfortable. She had to quickly finish arranging things, then go to the little Princess's side.

After being served by the Maid Ling to change clothes, the Empress picked up the Magic Core of the Lord of Extreme Cold beside her. Using it as a paperweight these past few days had been somewhat unfair to it.

"Let's go."

...

"Your Majesty, may I ask what you urgently summoned us to announce here?"

"I'm tired and plan to rest for a few days. Do any of you present have objections?"

"No objections, no objections..."

The ministers below voiced their agreement.

Of course they didn't dare have objections. If they had objections, who knows, the Empress might get unhappy and directly have them executed.

"There's one more matter. Recently someone submitted a memorial saying that among you ministers there's a spy sent by the Eighteen Alliance Nations. I wonder how you all view this issue?"

"Should be killed!"

A minister loudly said.

"Indeed should be killed, but I don't yet know who that spy is, nor do I know which minister originally submitted that memorial. Can the minister who submitted the memorial now please stand forward to identify them?"

"This..."

The ministers were somewhat speechless. Logically speaking, people who went to submit memorials to the Empress had to leave their names. Even if they didn't leave names, people from the Scarlet Maid Corps would silently remember. But now the Empress was saying she didn't know who it was. This situation felt somewhat suspicious.

"No one will stand forward to identify?"

The Empress asked, propping up her chin.

The ministers' hearts below almost jumped to their throats. They didn't know how long the Empress had been staring at them. Not one person dared to stand forward to identify anyone.

Of course they knew that if they stood forward to identify someone, after confirming the identified person was indeed a spy from the Eighteen Alliance Nations, they'd be richly rewarded by the Empress. The Empress had always given generous rewards. But if they weren't, after interrogation by the Scarlet Maid Corps discovered it was slander for the sake of rewards, not having their entire clan executed would be considered light punishment.

"No one?"

The Empress stared below and asked once more.

The Maid Ling on the side also didn't understand the Empress's intention. Clearly she'd never seen her Empress mention anything about spies. Even if there were spies, there was no need to tell these ministers. Usually they were directly handed over to the Scarlet Maid Corps to be dealt with privately.

Now the Empress suddenly said there were spies among the ministers below. Presumably this had ulterior motives. Was she trying to use this to intimidate the ministers under her command? But the current Empress, Her Majesty's prestige was already sufficient to intimidate the entire Eastern Region.

So why exactly was this?

The Maid Ling tried to think but couldn't figure out what exactly the Empress wanted to do.

"Ling, I order you to thoroughly investigate this matter these next few days."

Suddenly receiving orders, the Maid Ling subconsciously bowed:

"Understood."

...

After this court session ended, all the ministers were practically on edge, not daring to converse with each other, quickly returning to their own posts.

They were all afraid that once they conversed, the other party would turn out to be the spy, and they might directly be charged with colluding with the spy and have their entire clan executed together.

"Your Majesty?"

"Now you can reasonably disappear, and I can go find Mo."

So that's how it was?

So all this was the Empress, Her Majesty's strategy.

She suddenly understood. This was a trap the Empress set up so that while she wasn't here, the ministers under her command wouldn't cause trouble!

And she just needed to impersonate the Empress and properly rest through the Empress's vacation. She didn't need to handle any other series of matters.

"Next, help me summon all the legion generals. I also have matters to announce to them."

"Yes."

Before long, the Maid Ling had summoned all the legion generals and vice generals.

"The reason I summoned you all today, I believe you've all probably already guessed, right?"

That was the military authority issue she'd already displayed at the start of the war. The generals present weren't fools either. Of course they knew what the Empress's purpose in summoning them was.

"Please speak plainly, Your Majesty. We, as ministers and generals of Scarlet Phoenix Nation, have long since entrusted our lives to you. Whatever your decision is, we will have no complaints."

General Qin spoke first, followed by the other generals voicing their agreement.

"Mm."

The Empress nodded with satisfaction.

These were her confidants, also her Death Sworn Warriors. That they would say such words didn't surprise her at all.

"Then I'll speak plainly. I will not delegate the authority to deploy and command troops, nor will I continue to expand any army."

This was necessary. No matter what, she couldn't continue expanding the current seven great legions.

The reason was simple: if they got too large, they'd be easy to lose control of. Maintaining the current scale was the best choice.

Although as a Great Archmage she could easily make wars have no suspense, she couldn't personally go on campaign for every war, right?