July 13th, nine days away from July 22nd.
Stretching for thousands of miles, the Northern Border fortresses, comprised of countless Square Cities, City Trenches, Pavilions, and Signal Towers, resembled a majestic dragon with scales and claws intact.
Starting from the west at Dragon Head Pass and extending east to the Xuchuan River, which borders Tanhuan, the defenses connected a series of key towns along the Nine Borders.
For two thousand years, these fortifications unwaveringly withstood the nomadic adversaries of the steppes, whom Red County Shenzhou had always deeply feared through the ages.
Even in these chaotic tis, the Border Army here still loyally manned their posts.
However, the primary support for the troops’ provisions, armants, and military pay had shifted from the Court to the "Nine Soldiers".
Among them, Old Master Wang, who not only held the title of Vice Monarch of the Dou Departnt but also contributed a significant share of the support, could confidently claim to be a minor shareholder without any exaggeration.
Among these border troops,
the "Feather Forest Camp" and "Profound Crane Camp", who could transform into various birds thanks to their Innate Divine Abilities as Daoist Soldiers, have always been the most outstanding Scouts.
Yet today, sothing unusual happened.
Many Scouts, like homing pigeons that had lost their way, did not embark on normal reconnaissance routes flying beyond the fortress walls, heading to the endless Beimo.
Instead, after circling, they flew south in succession, entering the war-torn territories of Yan State.
The main forces engaged in mutual conquest were two factions.
One of them was the coalition of eight vassals—Fan, Wang, Jin, Yu, Liang, Tian, Di, and Huang—each holding at least one prefecture’s worth of land to the west of Yunjing City, solidifying their local dominions for hundreds of years and supporting each other generation after generation as powerful and wealthy families.
The primary business partners for these rchant vassals were naturally the five tribes of Naiman, just a fortress gate away!
When Great Yan was strong, these eight wealthy rchants only dared to conduct their business with the border army. As Great Yan’s power waned and military pay decreased,
and delays in paynt beca commonplace,
they naturally shifted their business alliances.
The five tribes of the steppes, ruled by "Heaven Righteous Dharma Dao" and predominantly focused on animal husbandry, lacked almost everything else.
Devoid of various light industries and handicrafts, lacking in slting, textile crafts, and even basic necessities like cookware and textiles, they even faced a severe shortage of food staples.
After the establishnt of Great Yan, constructing key fortresses such as White Cloud Pass among the Nine Soldiers was aid not just at militarily sealing off the steppes but also economically suppressing their livelihoods.
Within the five Naiman tribes, whether it was "Sewing Thousand Corpses" collecting the "Living People Tax" or "Deceit Corpse" collecting the "Dead Man Tax",
these practices were to so extent reluctant strategies to forcibly remove the old, weak, and sick from the tribes, ensuring the group always remained vigorous (Chapter 292).
And this provided the eight giant rchants with an opportunity.
There’s a saying that captures this well: with a decent profit margin, they beco bold; with a fifty percent profit, they will take risks;
for a hundred percent profit, they will trample all human laws;
if the profit reached three hundred percent, they would dare to challenge any cri, even at the risk of their entire family’s execution!
Driven by profits, no matter how steadfast White Cloud Pass’s defenses were, capable of holding back the fierce Naiman cavalry, they were utterly powerless against the greed of these Central Plains rchants!
For nearly a century, they bought massive quantities of goods from across the country, claiming to trade with the border army as a ruse, then northward through secret passages they controlled.
Via the comrcial routes sprawling across the steppes, they continuously supplied blood to Naiman.
All items banned from export by Great Yan beca the ans of their heavy profiteering.
The five Naiman tribes could easily purchase precious tea, silks, ironware, salt, provisions... even Firearms from the eight giant rchants.
With the benefit of geographical advantage, they rapidly accumulated primitive capital, amassing boundless wealth; their banks and bills of exchange spread throughout Divine Land.
The families further intermarried, forming a vast comrcial conglorate that at its peak even overshadowed the salt rchants of Jiangnan.
Having wealth, they could easily bribe Officials, Garrison Commanders, or purchase Top Grade Daoist Skills with no substantial flaws and Taboos that weren’t too dreadful.
Eventually, like a snowball rolling downhill, the eight giant rchants transford from regional trading groups into a conglorate of Magician and military factions.
In these troubled tis, they erged out of nowhere.
The coalition of the eight vassals was led by Jin Liangyu, the strongest head of the Jin Family in this generation,
commanding five thousand Fire Dragon Soldiers with his Martial Saint prowess and various private troops and family guards, raised at great expense.
His subordinates, whether Magician or Firearms Camps, exuded an air of rustic wealth, far more overbearing than the average vassal.
Despite openly opposing Su Guyun, the "Co-Founder", the "zero-bad-review" Firearms they traded from other channels were not few in number.
On the other side was Su Guyun, who mobilized the entire fortune of the "No-Life Dao" in the north to assemble the last six thousand Three Yang Soldiers.
Together with assorted Garrison Soldiers and Green Forest Soldiers, they ford an army of ten thousand Daoist Soldiers.
The Magician Camp, coming from well-established Sects, was in no way inferior to the coalition.
His Firearms Camp, on the other hand, had an overwhelming advantage. With a vast supply of armants, the regular soldiers of the Firearms Camp already surpassed the hundred thousand mark.
All chosen from the strongest and fittest youth among his territories.
Even facing eight opponents, he solidly held the upper hand, and in this world where might is centralized, the prospects of overcoming the enemy were not in doubt.
Of course, this was all provided that nothing unexpected occurred.
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