Cthulhu Gonfalon

The various forces were arguing endlessly, and the big boss, Sui Xiong, had no conclusion. Naturally, the argument would fetch no result.

Sui Xiong also could not be bothered to engage in such a pointless argument any further. He merely told them to slowly discuss things, and then he returned to his God Kingdom to continue the training.

Yes, that training ground was not even on Earth. It was within his God Kingdom.

This was not for the sake of secrecy, just purely to save trouble. There was a lot of messy designs in that training ground. It would be quite a chore if he wished to get everything out in reality. But if he were to build it in his own God Kingdom, he would have the power to change everything at his own will. This was much more convenient.

As the days passed, new armies of the various countries were gradually taking shape. And the situation within the Commonwealth of Gold Coins between the northern and southern sides was increasingly intense. It seemed like a storm was brewing.

This time, the aristocratic party was no longer the one with the upper hand, and the merchant party was no longer the side that had to back down. The situation was reversed.

Other than its seven ace troops consisting of its New First Army to its New Seventh Army, the merchant party also trained more than 20 new armies after it adopted their style of training. The original seven ace troops were combined to form what was called the New First Army Corps. Those that were trained later were called the New Second Army Corps, New Third Army Corps and New Fourth Army Corps.

The combat power of the Second, Third and Fourth Army Corps were naturally not up to the standard of the First Army Corps, but they were truly elite troops that were capable of “daring to fight” and “able to fight.” The Fifth Army of the First Army Corps could win a bloody battle even if it was in a disadvantageous situation. Even though they were not so skilled fighters, at least when they were in a situation where there was a balance in power, they could still fight a normal battle.

With these four Army Corps, the merchant party naturally gained confidence. With enough confidence, they were much stronger when they had to face the aristocratic party.

Over the years, there had been much friction between the two parties of the Commonwealth of Gold Coins. From time to time, there would be occurrences of conflicts. In the past, the merchant party would always tolerate with everything they could put up with and tried their best to make big matters small and small matters trivial. But now, with the four major Army Corps to fall back on, the merchant party certainly would not make any further concessions.

Not only would they not yield an inch, they were going to turn the tables and force the aristocratic party to yield to them!

In terms of reason, there was nothing wrong with that. It was the unalterable truth that the strong would prevail and the weak would give way. But the aristocratic party had been used to always being the side with the upper hand. Some time ago, it had not gained any advantage and because of that, the aristocrats’ hearts were already burning in a nest of flames. And now, the merchant party had to turn things around and demand the concession of the aristocratic party—this was truly something that was really unbearable!

This time, even the few great aristocrats who originally wanted peace could not take things lying down. The supreme council that was made up of 16 great aristocrats quickly passed the resolution of “giving the merchants a taste of our power.” What followed next was nothing more than carrying out more joint meetings among the aristocrats to discuss exactly how they should go about giving this “taste of their power” as well as to what degree of power should they exert upon the merchant party.

When the number of people increased, naturally secrets would no longer be secrets. Moreover, the aristocratic party had no intention of keeping this matter as a secret. The aristocratic party had the intention of launching an attack on the merchant party within the next few days, and the news of all aristocrats being summoned to the capital to attend a major meeting for all aristocrats was spread.

Naturally, this news would reach the ears of the merchant party as well.

“Have you all heard? Those in the South seem to be planning something,” said someone at the meeting of the great merchants. It was the current chairperson of one of the largest Chambers of Commerce in the North, the “Pearl of the Night” Chamber of Commerce. With a sarcastic smile, he said, “The old bureaucrats seem to find us overly presumptuous and want to teach us a lesson.”

Laughter was heard from several places. More than one merchant laughed.

“There’s something I don’t quite understand. Where do they find such confidence?” wondered the chairperson of another major Chamber of Commerce. He shook his head, and out of puzzlement, he said, “In terms of army, their army is not any stronger than our New Army. In terms of masters, those that we can invite over to our side will definitely not lose to them. Why do they think that we’re still as easy to bully as we used to be?”

“Before they’ve seen with their own eyes, people tend to believe their past impressions. Don’t we always make use of this characteristic when we engage in business dealings?” said a gentle old man with a goatee. He smiled and went on to say, “Why not we put it this way, it’s all thanks to this “belief in stereotypes” that we can sometimes seize the opportunity to make a fortune.”

The merchants smiled knowingly. There were even some who echoed his opinions by chiming in, “Chairman Cliff is right!”

“Come to think of it, maybe this time, we can also find the chance to make a profit,” a merchant who was slightly younger than Chairman Cliff suddenly said. “War is the best way to change the division of interests. If we can win this battle, we can definitely gain a lot of benefits!”

“If nothing else, just by bringing a change to the pattern of the state power is enough to in huge benefits,” said the chairperson of Night of the Pearl Chamber of Commerce. He nodded and said, “In fact, within our country, there are still many forces that are neither hardcore merchants nor hardcore aristocrats. They are all looking to see the power contrast between the two parties to decide who they should support. If we can show that our power is strong enough to suppress the aristocrat party, they will be most willing to turn to us with their support.”

“That’s right. It’s human nature to push a falling wall and to fish in troubled waters. So long as we can win, there are many people out there who want to take the chance to hit these aristocratic bureaucrats when they are down!”

“We might not even need to win. So long as the fight ends up with a draw, there will be many people coming to support us. After all, if we can break even in this situation, with their support, we will naturally be the winner.”

“But... it’s also necessary to guard against spies. Knives from the back are the most dangerous ones!”

“So long as we don’t reveal the key, so what if there’s someone sneaking up from behind? Moreover, how can we just bare our backs to outsiders?”

“Haha! That’s right! We merchants have to depend on ourselves after all! So long as we cooperate with each other with utmost sincerity, we can become bigger and stronger!” the chairperson of the Pearl of the Night Chamber of Commerce cheered loudly. He praised that businessman who had just put forward the term “outsiders.” He said to the crowd, “All of us here must remember that no matter how good the conditions put forward by those people and how great benefits they could bring us, our fundamental lies in the alliance of all of us. It’s because of this great alliance that we have the strength of present. This is also how we can strive for more benefits!”

The merchants nodded, and many voiced their responses.

Those who were able to sit in and participate in this meeting were all experienced and knowledgeable personnel. Among them, there were those like Chairman Cliff from the “Lucky Wolf Fang” Chamber of Commerce, who had struggled his entire lifetime to finally accomplish something great when he was old. There were also those grew up learning and sharpening their skills under their parents’ elite education, finally emerging as the top of the crowd and successfully inheriting the family’s business—the world of the merchants was not as courteous as that of the aristocrats. Though bloodline and family were not entirely useless, they definitely were not key roles either. If one wanted to become a leader of a chamber of commerce, one would first have to be good enough.

Those who held office and enjoyed all the privileges without doing a stroke of work would never be able to enter the highest chamber of the Merchants’ Association.

It was because these merchants were all people who had fought and struggled their way through countless storms, so they were full of confidence in themselves. And this made them even more dissatisfied with those aristocrats, who inherited their families’ businesses merely by bloodline but had been suppressing the merchants for such a long time.

Now, the chance for revenge was close at hand. Even the most amiable merchant could not help but wish to give the aristocrats a taste of their own medicine!