Chapter Forty-Eight: Return to Great Song (Fifth Update)

Seeing Su Yunyun’s shy expression, a nameless fire surged up in Sun Li’s heart, and he almost wished he could turn into a wolf at once and throw back his head to howl at the sky.

He had no choice but to force down that heat with his own formidable will, warning himself again and again that it was not the time. Amitabha. Well done, well done. Desire is emptiness, emptiness is desire...

Once the atmosphere had eased, the two continued their discussion on the restoration of the Mexican region.

Su Yunyun watched Sun Li speak with such solemn seriousness, and she too quieted her mind to listen. Hmm. The way things looked, it really might be possible for reinforcements to land in Mexico. No matter how many there were, causing trouble for the English would still be a good thing, wouldn’t it?

Having reached an understanding, Su Yunyun and Sun Li finalized their cooperation.

First, Sun Li would bring what he claimed was the great army of the Song Kingdom to land at a concealed site provided by the wood elves in the Mexican region. The coastline of Mexico was simply too vast, and the viceroy of Mexico, convinced that no strong enemy lurked around him, had neither spent the money nor expended the effort to establish coastal defenses. He had placed only rudimentary fortifications at a few important ports. In the viceroy’s eyes, this place was nothing less than a blessed land. Under the protection of the mighty navy of the English Empire, war would only ever be fought on the European mainland. If the homeland truly fell, then they would worry about it then...

In any case, the English Empire was now in full ascendance. In just a few days, fighting should be breaking out around Madrid. If nothing unexpected happened, the territory of the English Empire would continue to expand!

As for the Song Kingdom, that minor state was simply ignored by the viceroy of Mexico. The Caracas region on the orc continent was still firmly in the hands of the English Empire, let alone the Song Kingdom, whose tiny population and meager army made its war potential pitiful indeed!

Su Yunyun deeply doubted the “tens of thousands” of troops Sun Li spoke of. Could it really be that the Emperor of Song had thrown his whole realm into the field, so confident that those common folk would obediently labor for this tyrant in the rear?

Still, since Sun Li said so, she would take it as it was for now...

After the landing, Sun Li’s army would head straight for Guatemala, the major military stronghold of Mexico, and seize that famous city in the Mexican region outright.

At the same time, the wood elves’ resistance forces would ignite a massive uprising. In Sun Li’s eyes, it was merely a mob riot, but it would help draw away the enemy’s strength in the Mexican region.

Using Guatemala City as a supply base, Sun Li’s army would advance toward the political center of the Mexican region—Mexico City. Sun Li was convinced that with the wood elves stirring up trouble, the viceroy of Mexico could forget about assembling a hundred-thousand-man army; if he could scrape together half that number, it would already be impressive. Then, in a proper pitched battle, Sun Li would face the assembled forces of the viceroy of Mexico head-on. As long as he won that one battle, the armies throughout the entire Mexican region would be thoroughly cowed. Moreover, with fierce fighting still raging on the mainland, reinforcements from there would not be able to arrive for a year. All Sun Li would need to guard against would be the forces of the English Empire’s colony of Melia in northern Mexico.

After that would come the delightful time of harvest. As for the wood elves, Sun Li had no intention of taking them under his command. Since Jinzhou was so vast, it would be enough for him to occupy only a few major cities and all the gold mines. What harm was there in giving the rest of the land to the wood elves? In any case, the Song Kingdom did not have so many people to settle. Besides, Sun Li was even wondering whether he could kill a few more white men and increase his points income.

Under Sun Li’s painstaking persuasion, Su Yunyun half believed and half doubted his proposal. The wood elves would simply be preparing for war, after all, so there was no real loss.

Su Yunyun had already made up her mind: if she did not see the “tens of thousands” of troops Sun Li claimed to have brought, she would absolutely not launch a full-scale uprising. At most, they would harass the English Empire’s armories and such together and earn a little extra on the side.

Sun Li also knew full well that Su Yunyun did not trust him at all when he claimed he could bring a real army. He did not care. Once the army arrived, everything would naturally fall into place.

After inviting Su Yunyun to dinner and being coldly rejected, Sun Li clicked his tongue, left her residence helplessly, and departed. After all, he was now considered unwelcome among the wood elves, so it was best to avoid suspicion...

Watching Sun Li’s departing figure, Su Yunyun sighed. After thinking it over, she decided to go to Su Lulu’s room instead. Her younger sister had gone without a smile for a very long time; it was time to cheer her up. Who knew what was so wonderful about Sun Li that had made her sister worship him like some heroic idol, utterly and hopelessly smitten...

Sun Li left the wood elf gathering place in satisfaction and set out on the road back to the Song Kingdom. Guided by the Imperial Guard, he boarded a vessel not much different from the small merchant ship he had taken when he first arrived in Jinzhou.

Looking at his poor little boat, he could not help sighing once more at the weakness of his navy. Up to now, aside from transport ships and merchant vessels, Sun Li did not possess a single warship. It was fortunate he had not gone to war with the English Empire.

If the English Empire had grown wary and dispatched a fleet to block the Caribbean Strait, then leading an army ashore would truly have been nothing but a fool’s dream.

Perhaps this was one of the small boons Sun Li had gained by cultivating good relations with the English Empire. The viceroy of Mexico had not kept a particularly close watch on him; at the very least, the Caribbean Strait was much as it had always been. Aside from cruisers used to suppress pirates, there was not a single battleship.

Since the wood elf pirates had vanished without a trace, the already impoverished patrol fleets on the route from the orc continent to Jinzhou had become even fewer. The orc continent had only a handful of gold mines, and they were in the hands of the Song Kingdom. The viceroy of Mexico truly had little interest in sending fleets out on patrol. Besides, the Song Kingdom’s army was indeed far too small!

Once again passing through the waters where he had set out from in the beginning, Sun Li could not help mocking himself for how naive his original thinking had been. Although his trip to the European mainland had been safe enough and brought him many spoils, even if he had never come on this journey, he could still have developed by slowly building his strength on the orc continent. It would only have taken more time. Now, in less than two years, he already had the chance and the power to expand; if he had developed gradually, it would have taken at least ten years.

But that method was the safest and most prudent. If anything had gone wrong on this journey, he would have had no one but himself to blame.

From now on, he would absolutely never again go off alone to play at some adventure. It seemed his shut-in nature had not yet fully rotted away.

I am the Song Kingdom, and the Song Kingdom is me. Wherever I go from now on, there shall be only ground trampled by armies, blades pointing where I direct, banners flowing where I command.

With the gold mines, I will have endless armies. With such a powerful cheat, what does time amount to? I would like to see who in this world can stop my steps of expansion!

At that moment, Sun Li’s ambition soared to the heavens. He saw through the very foundation of his footing in this world, and from then on, no such solitary acts of reckless peril would ever appear again in Sun Li’s dictionary.