Chapter 161: 095 A bloodless victory Chapter 161: 095 A bloodless victory Early in the morning, the young major was ruthlessly dragged out of his warm bed by the retired old pirate who had returned ahead of schedule.
“Where is my daughter?” Kolev glared and shouted.
“Continuing her life of crime.”
Yang Ming lay back on the bed, muttering with his eyes closed,
“I tried to persuade her, but she didn’t want to come over. She’s planning to stay on the outskirts of the Luofeng Empire for a while to develop her business… You actually let Molly lure her to the Luofeng Empire; that’s simply despicable.”
“You can’t blame me for that.”
Kolev replied somewhat guiltily. The old man, dressed in a suit and tie, sat by Yang Ming’s bedside and continued to ramble.
“I only have one daughter, you know. If she’s a bit closer to me, I can assist her at any time if she runs into trouble.”
Yang Ming complained, “Let me rest for a bit; I was frightened by the Old Emperor yesterday.”
“Being a pirate is still too dangerous,” Kolev continued with his thoughts, “I need to figure out a way to change her aspirations.”
Yang Ming turned his back on the old man, too lazy to correct Kolev’s overbearing parenting attitude.
However, Yang Ming’s wish to make up for lost sleep ultimately didn’t come true.
Just as Kolev went back to his room to rest, Edwan sent a video invitation.
The Second Prince looked exhausted, clearly having not slept all night. When he saw Yang Ming in the video call, he forced a smile and then sighed dejectedly,
“Ming, I feel like my father has suddenly become a different person.”
Yang Ming felt inexplicably guilty.
He laughed, “Maybe His Majesty is liberating his nature? Or perhaps he feels he lived too repressed before and has decided to indulge himself a bit now?”
“But he suddenly imprisoned an entire variety show production team, this…”
“That’s royal authority,” Yang Ming reminded. “Edwan, you have to keep in mind, for now, your father is still in charge, and any dissatisfaction must be endured.”
Edwan reclined on the sofa, “I just got news that Father had a fight with Princess Dana, and their argument was fierce.”
“Take care of Emilia,” Yang Ming reminded, “Don’t let her get involved. The conflict between the two of them might get even more intense later.”
Edwan asked, “Ming, do you know something?”
“Princess Dana is a spy for the Sherman Empire,” Yang Ming replied calmly. “It’s a well-known secret, nothing to fuss about.”
“But Father has been acting too unusually lately.”
“The way Father is treating his own citizens so rashly is something I find hard to accept.”
To this, Yang Ming could only offer a few gentle words of comfort.
What else could he do?
Could he tell Edwan that the Old Emperor was actually an Intelligent Machine, and that his father had long been eliminated or imprisoned by the Sherman Empire?
Given Edwan’s temperament, he might confront the Sherman Empire directly, putting himself in danger.
The Old Emperor, though showing signs of losing control, still seemed unlikely to escape the control of the Sherman Empire.
The strength of the Sherman Empire should never be underestimated.
Suddenly, Edwan said, “By the way, Yang Ming, Father is about to grant you a title. Based on the suggestion from the Minister of Internal Affairs, it should be Viscount. Do you need my help to secure a higher title? The titles in Luofeng don’t hold much value anyway.”
“This is just a starting point, isn’t it?”
Yang Ming laughed, “Skipping past Knight and Baron is quite a feat.”
Edwan chuckled, “The titles Luofeng sells directly to outsiders are Knight and Baron. Father’s rewards wouldn’t be so stingy.”
“Quickly go and rest, Your Highness,” Yang Ming said gently, “You should receive a gift once you wake up.”
“Oh, don’t say that!”
Edwan frowned, “Now that you’ve said it, how am I supposed to sleep? What gift? Show it to me first.”
“See you in the afternoon… Miss Windsor just called, this can’t be ignored.”
Yang Ming casually ended the video call.
Rather than worrying about state affairs with Edwan, exchanging sweet nothings with Miss Windsor was much more pleasing to Yang Ming.
As noon approached, the task assigned to Gudun Mah by Yang Ming began to steadily advance.
The so-called fake coup plan had the core idea of intentionally alerting the enemy—the “enemy” being the Sherman Empire.
Before settling on this plan, Yang Ming had devised several schemes:
Taking advantage of individual tactical superiority to directly eliminate Ilouis and the current Minister of Defense;
Having Gudun Mah send someone to assassinate Ilouis;
Planning with Edwan to investigate Ilouis first, framing him with some charges, and at least forcing him to leave the Luofeng Empire…
But these schemes either risked exposing Yang Ming’s combat capabilities, or risked backlash, or allowed the other side to gain the upper hand.
After repeated discussions between Yang Ming and Lyu, the fake coup plan was born.
The steps of this plan were simple, but its execution was quite challenging.
Step one, Lyu synthesized a nearly indistinguishable “internal speech” using Ilouis’s image. In the video, Ilouis inspired his confidants, denounced the incompetence and mediocrity of the Wind royal family, and announced his intentions to seize the throne and establish a military government.
By noon, this speech video had started to spread virally online.
While carrying out the first step, Lyu also designed many small details, such as initially making the video appear frequently on various social media platforms, but not hitting the trending lists of the web portals; then, when the buzz couldn’t be suppressed and hit trending, using the suppression of trending topics to incite public emotion and reverse-confirm the authenticity of the video content.
Step two immediately followed, as Gudun Mah quickly summoned a few closer-ranking officers for a meeting, proactively bringing the fake video for discussion.