Doctor Amnesiac, but not completely amnesiac

Chapter 51: The Ultimate “Businessman”

"I didn't expect you to reappear in front of me under the name of Kosice - but seeing your current appearance, I seem to have figured things out a little bit."

Nicholas's eyes were filled with anticipation.

"I am different from Kosice. I am not an Ursus immortal. Ursus is lucky to have Kosice. Do you still wish for a Sadko to appear?"

Qiao Yelan interrupted Nicholas' fantasy without any hesitation.

"That's true..."

The old man hesitated for a moment and spoke again.

"Then why did you return to Saint Eagle Castle this time?"

"I am a businessman. I came back for a new deal. Vladimir tore up the contract, and I will not sign a new contract with him. So I will look for a new trader after he dies."

Even though Qiao Yelan called the late emperor by his name, Nicholas did not react at all, because he had seen this scene countless times in front of his royal brother.

"The new trader...is it Fyodor?"

"It could be him, it could be you, or it could be Islam Witt."

This name made Nicholas' face darken, but in the end he could only feel helpless.

"Do you think so highly of him?"

"Of course, at least I have never seen anyone who can jump back and forth between two hostile forces so smoothly, and even people from both forces are willing to discuss important matters with him."

This is what the man who jumped back and forth between the countless forces on Terra said.

"That fence-sitter... He completely betrayed the person who promoted him!"

"So I'll be on guard in advance - a betrayal that's prepared is far better than a betrayal that I can't imagine."

Nicholas sighed again.

In fact, he couldn't quite understand Qiao Yelan's purpose - all the means used by the other party were to help Ursus embark on a promising bright future, but when this road came to a critical point, the other party casually abandoned Ursus and allowed the entire country to fall apart.

"Your Majesty has told me this, but I don't understand. Just because I transferred back the [Emperor's Guard], can you watch your decades of hard work go to waste?"

“Is there a possibility that my decades of hard work were all for that [interior guard]?”

Nicholas was shocked by Qiao Yelan’s words.

"This, this is impossible! Compared with the Ursus Empire and an internal guard, the former is undoubtedly more important - and my brother is only transferred back for temporary emergency. After the Wudong War is over, he will be sent back to the North!"

He subconsciously raised his voice, but this behavior exposed his lack of confidence.

"To answer your first question: Ursus is not as important to me as the [Inner Guard] that I created. Because it means that I have taken the right path - humans will be able to fight against the evil demons by using the evil demons themselves, instead of only using the equally dangerous Originium."

"As for your second question, that troop can't be sent back - the reason is very simple. After you tried hunting with a gun once, can you be willing to go back to using a spear?"

Qiao Yelan's face was cold, and the anger from the bottom of his heart appeared in his tone for the first time.

"【Inner Guard】is a symbol of humans controlling the power of evil spirits, but this power must not be used in human battles, because it is equivalent to using evil spirits to massacre humans!"

"Not to mention the bullshit [Kingdom] they invented! The essence of that move is to make the imaginary space where the evil spirits exist overlap with Terra, so after using the Kingdom multiple times, it will destroy all living things there!"

"Every time the inner guards use that move, it means that this land takes one step closer to destruction!"

He slammed his hand on the table.

"I have repeatedly warned him that, except for patrols in the Far North, no internal guards should be used for his war activities. Since he has chosen to obey his own desires, why should I care about the country he loves?"

Nicholas looked at the angry man in front of him with cold hands and feet. It was the first time he saw him lose his composure like this. It was obvious that he no longer had any friendship for the late emperor in his heart.

"Why did it come to this... His Majesty... He is very regretful. He has told me more than once that he wants to apologize to you."

All the glory and fame seem to have gone far away from this study. Sitting here is just an old man who likes to reminisce about the past.

"I know, but there are only zero or countless betrayals, and I have no interest in bearing the consequences again, so I never plan to come back while he's still alive."

The old man smiled bitterly, knowing that everything was beyond redemption.

"Since you like reminiscing about the past so much, why don't we chat about it together? Ursus has changed a lot in the past few years since I left - so much that it seems like the first time I came to Ursus."

Qiao Yelan leaned back in his wheelchair, quietly waiting for Nicholas to sort out his thoughts.

"I am not Vladimir, there is no one in the world who can replace him, and I am just a poor paperhanger - so I can only use the methods I can think of to save my country."

Nicholas did not deny Qiao Yelan's words. He knew very well that there was no point in lying in front of this man.

"After Vladimir fell, Ursus was shaken. The Sixth Army rose up and surrounded the Holy Eagle Castle. However, their demand was not to replace the emperor, but to force the new emperor to continue the plan to destroy the nobles."

"But they don't understand that Ursus was no longer qualified to launch this plan at that time. The young people who were originally placed with high hopes all died in the East Country. Their blood soaked the mountain. The future of the empire was overdrawn in a foreign land."

Nikolai Romanov saw clearly the desperate situation facing Ursus: the current empire did not have enough middle and lower-level officials to replace these nobles. If a purge was forcibly carried out, it would only lead to a greater disaster.

All the nobles will rise up in rebellion, and most of these guys are rotten bastards with no bottom line. They don't even mind introducing forces from other countries to fight this civil war.

By then, the entire Ursus will be torn to pieces by countless armies led by countless ideologies, and the surrounding countries will not hesitate to show their fangs and tear apart the fallen giant bear.

However, those who are still loyal to Ursus have to fight a civil war from which no one can escape because of their different beliefs.

Now we are about to enter the Ursus Chicken Dinner Contest.

So this man, who was once Vladimir's closest royal relative and the most loyal marshal under the emperor, stood in front of the rebellious Sixth Army. While defending the Holy Eagle Castle, he mobilized his two armies on the Casimir front to return to the emperor to defend him.

So, soldiers carrying ideals and soldiers carrying loyalty fought each other on the battlefield, and they didn't even know that the bearers of this ideal and loyalty were the same person.

This is the greatest sorrow of a country.

Everything that happened afterwards was recorded in the history book inside the Tower of Babel.

The six chapters that initiated the rebellion were completely destroyed in this civil war, and the two and seven chapters that supported the king also suffered heavy losses.

Including the First Army which was almost wiped out in the Battle of Blood Peak, a total of four armies loyal to the emperor fell in the war.

So, what will the nobles do when they discover that the late emperor is dead and realize that the military power in their hands has overwhelmed the power held by the royal family?

"I can't think of any other way to save it. Nikolai Romanov must act as the leader of the opposition, integrate those nobles who should have been swept into the garbage heap, and confront the emperor head-on, because only in this way can those nobles temporarily give up those ideas."

The old man expressed his thoughts in a calm tone, and the despair and torment hidden beneath the calmness were undoubtedly conveyed to the audience.

【Can you help me ask him a question? 】

"Ask yourself."

Qiao Yelan stretched out his arms, and under Nicholas' surprised gaze, a black aura rolled out.

Koschei outlined her own appearance with black mist and stared at Nicholas. She had always had a question in her mind: why did things come to this point?

"Grand Duke Kosice is here too."

[Yes, although I don’t really care who sits on the throne, Vladimir is indeed the best emperor I have ever seen in the past thousand years - so how could Ursus collapse into this state in such a short period of time? ]

"I can't answer this question. I'm just a soldier. How to govern and rule the country is up to my brother."

Nicholas answered simply.

"In fact, this has always been my question. The empire has always been thriving and has won all foreign wars. Although the war with the East Kingdom caused heavy losses to the empire, the empire has not really failed."

"Ursus is very large and has sufficient blood-forming function. We can wait for a new batch of young people to grow up, and the serf reform is also proceeding step by step. But why did my brother completely despair after the Battle of Blood Peak?"

Nicholas still remembered that before the war, although the late emperor was ill, he was in good spirits and the doctors said he was fine.

But when the news came back that the Yan army was approaching and the war situation could no longer be reversed, when the emperor summoned him for the first time, he was already haggard and extremely exhausted, and his condition worsened three times a day.

"He said to me, 'Nikola, I was wrong, I shouldn't have done this, I shouldn't have called back the inside defender, I shouldn't have put everything on the line...'."

The old man turned his gaze back to Qiao Yelan.

"I think you are the only one in this world who can understand what His Majesty said and explain why the empire collapsed so quickly."

"Of course, because this was the plan that Vladimir and I were promoting together."

Qiao Yelan nodded.

"Let me tell you the truth about Ursus, about how this huge and bloated empire, while maintaining serfdom, was able to mobilize resources sufficient to crush Casimir and Victoria—"

"Vladimir, we have been borrowing money to fight the war."

The two people looked at Qiao Yelan in amazement.

"What's wrong? Is it weird?"

The man sneered.

"Borrow money? Whose money?"

"Of course I borrowed money from the nobles."

[But why would the nobles lend money to the emperor? Aren't they the kind of people who would rather let the grain rot in the warehouse than contribute a single grain to the empire?]

Qiao Yelan stretched out an index finger and shook it gently.

"You are wrong, Kosice. They are not stingy, but greedy. If their investment can get a return they can't even dream of, they will squeeze the last drop of oil and water in their territory to invest it."

"So what kind of business investment in Ursus can bring them such a return?"

Nicholas could not describe the expression that appeared on Qiao Yelan's face at this moment. The look of a sarcastic and mocking villain and the look of a compassionate saint appeared in front of him at the same time.

"Of course it is—war!"

Just like clear water falling into a boiling oil pan, Nikola's heart was suddenly filled with huge waves.

war.

Yes, war!

Land taken from Casimir, reparations taken from Victoria, people taken from Leitania—

Which one wouldn't be a reward that would drive the nobles crazy?

Yes, war can only bring rewards if it is won - but when Vladimir the Great announced the end of the war, who would doubt that this war would fail?

War after war brought rewards again and again, from Vladimir's followers in the beginning, to the royalist nobles later, to the neutral nobles, and finally even the opposition nobles could not help but join this "business investment"!

So the war became a cyclical business plan - the emperor borrowed money to start a war - the imperial army won - the fruits of victory were shared - the emperor borrowed money to start the next war.

In the process of this flow, the emperor would borrow more and more money, the imperial army would become stronger and stronger, and the victories in wars would become more and more glorious - until the entire empire was brought into this cycle of flow.

"It is with the support of these nobles that Ursus, a semi-slave country, can support such a large army, and that the Empire can be so aggressive that the entire Terra is afraid of it."

"So, what if, in the last and greatest war, all the nobles gathered their efforts and provided the largest army, but failed to bring any return to the empire - what would happen?"

Qiao Yelan asked quietly.

And the answer is self-evident.

"The investment cannot be repaid, so the cycle completely collapses. However, the money and materials that have been consumed cannot be recovered. The huge investment in the entire war will be borne as a cost by everyone who enters this cycle."

"In other words, the Ursus Empire has collapsed."

Chapter 52 Oolong

"Is that really the case..."

Nicholas' dry mouth could not secrete a single drop of saliva, and his sticky tongue could barely push the gossamer sound into words.

"So in your eyes, the Empire is really just a transaction..."

Kosice barely concealed the shock in his heart. Qiao Yelan always said that he was a businessman. So this is what he meant.

[What if Vladimir didn't mobilize the internal guards to come back from the northern wilderness, would you help him? ]

"Of course. In fact, I have helped every country that has focused on fighting the evil demons. In return, they have rewarded me and have never betrayed me."

Qiao Yelan said calmly.

"Dayan established the Tianji Pavilion, where countless celestial masters and soldiers fought desperately with the evil spirits; the Sami people settled in that wasteland, and the shamans used their lives to block the expansion of the collapse point; the Cyclops went to the North with his prophecy, where they helped everyone in need."

"I have never violated a contract I have signed. You should be one of the people who understands this the most, Your Highness Kosice."

[…I really can’t refute that.]

"Your Majesty, he...he just..."

“He just doesn’t trust me because he knows his child is mediocre – he’s worried that he’s running out of time, that Fyodor will become my puppet, that his country will become my tool.”

Qiao Yelan shook his head slightly and gave Nicholas a disdainful smile.

"But he is wrong about one thing - if Ursus can't even be a tool, then Ursus has no value to me."