"Restore the former dynasty and restore the Great Xin!"
These mere eight characters, a few hundred strokes, struck the young Prince Chen Longxiang of Jin like a bolt from the blue.
As the former empress Su Wan'er spoke, she kept a close eye on Prince Chen Longxiang's expression and reaction when he heard the suggestion, her eyes seemingly full of affection but actually harboring malice.
When she noticed that Chen Longxiang's originally gloomy and dejected expression had instantly turned into alertness and anger, Su Wan'er immediately knelt down in front of Chen Longxiang with her big pregnant belly before he could explode in anger, looking pitiful with tears streaming down her face.
Su Wan'er hurriedly admitted her mistake, saying, "Your Highness, please calm down. I only thought of helping you because I saw that you were very worried about this matter."
"I am but a woman, lacking in cunning and experience, only understanding the simple truth that 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend';"
"Now, His Majesty intends to kill my family of three, and the Prince, for the sake of me and the child in my womb, is willing to break ties with the Emperor and become an enemy of the entire Tang Dynasty."
"But Your Highness, with only the small territory of the Goguryeo Peninsula, it is truly difficult to contend with the vast Tang Dynasty, whose national strength and military power are at their peak."
"Even if Your Highness possesses the strength to rival the three armies and the courage to be invincible among ten thousand men, you are still just a mortal. To try to fight against the entire Tang Dynasty by yourself is an impossible task, whether Your Highness is willing to admit it or not."
As Su Wan'er spoke, she kept observing Chen Longxiang's expression and reaction out of the corner of her eye.
When she discovered that the firm vigilance and anger in his eyes were beginning to relax little by little, she decided to add fuel to the fire and put on a show to completely lower Chen Longxiang's guard, making him a puppet she could manipulate at will.
Su Wan'er continued emotionally, "Your Highness, I admit I'm selfish. In considering any issue, I always put the livelihood and future of my family of three first."
"The reason I suggested that Your Highness take this opportunity to enthrone Xiao Lingwu as emperor again, restore the previous dynasty, and restore the Great Xin Dynasty is because I want to use the power of the former officials of the Tang Dynasty to help Your Highness fight against the court!"
"Your Highness, consider this: the mere territory of Goguryeo is utterly incapable of confronting the mighty Tang Dynasty."
"If, if there were a force within the Tang Dynasty to assist the Prince at this time, the court would not have to devote all its energy and military strength to the conquest of the Goguryeo Peninsula;"
"In this way, Your Highness can get a moment's respite and develop on the Goguryeo Peninsula, and then proceed slowly and steadily!"
"Your Highness..."
Next, Su Wan'er began to subtly guide Prince Chen Longxiang's thoughts towards the restoration of the Great Xin Dynasty that she had planned in advance.
He further assured Chen Longxiang that as long as he raised the banner of "overthrowing the Tang Dynasty and restoring the Xin Dynasty" on the Goguryeo Peninsula, he would surely be able to gain widespread support in the Central Plains.
He even went so far as to reveal to Chen Longxiang the entire network of influence that Su Wan'er had secretly cultivated in the Central Plains.
It turns out that after Su Wan'er fled to the Goguryeo Peninsula, a chance encounter led her to meet a former servant of the Prince of Zhongshan in Pyongyang, the capital of Goguryeo.
Su Wenbin, the former Prince of Zhongshan, was a wealthy merchant in the Jiangnan region. Before he secretly funded Emperor Zhao Mang of the Great Xin Dynasty to raise an army, the Su family's business empire had already spread throughout the entire Jiangnan region.
The nobles and wealthy merchants of the Goguryeo and Wa kingdoms all maintained close and friendly relations with the Su family in their business dealings.
Even later, after Emperor Zhaowu of Tang, Chen Huai'an, overthrew the rule of the Daxin Dynasty, Su Muchen, the second-generation Prince of Zhongshan of Daxin and the elder brother of Empress Dowager Su Wan'er of Daxin, was still pardoned by Emperor Zhaowu of Tang, Chen Huai'an, and retained his title and treatment as Prince of Zhongshan, only that it was no longer hereditary.
Under the management of the playboy Su Muchen, the Su family of Zhongshan Prince's Mansion, although its commercial influence has weakened considerably, still maintains commercial ties with Goguryeo and Japan.
Therefore, when Su Wan'er, who had fled to this place, encountered a former servant of the Prince's Mansion, and after several cautious confirmations, she finally let down her guard and used the commercial communication channels of the Prince's Mansion to contact her elder brother Su Muchen, who was far away in Guangling County, Jiangnan.
Initially, Su Wan'er made contact with the Prince of Zhongshan's mansion merely to alleviate her homesickness and longing for her family; she had no other intentions.
However, after the governors of Liangjiang and Lianghu were implicated in the first "tea-horse smuggling case" of the Tang Dynasty and their families were implicated, Prince Zhongshan Su Muchen mentioned in his correspondence with his younger sister Su Wan'er that he was worried that Emperor Zhaowu Chen Huai'an might seek revenge and wipe out the Prince Zhongshan's family as well.
Furthermore, he revealed that his secret training of assassins in the Prince's Palace and his funding of the Nanyang merchant fleet to develop commercial ships were all measures he took to ensure that he would have the strength to retaliate should Chen Huai'an ever want to settle scores with him.
Furthermore, she instructed her younger sister, Su Wan'er, to make preparations in advance on the Goguryeo Peninsula to receive the Zhongshan Prince's family members who were fleeing.
Prior to this, Su Wan'er, who was pregnant with the child of Prince Chen Longxiang of Jin, learned of this news from her elder brother Su Muchen's correspondence. She was shocked but did not take it to heart.
However, after this trip to Jinling completely broke the ice between Su Wan'er and Chen Huai'an, Su Wan'er's mind suddenly became meticulous and agile.
A bold plan to restore the nation was born.
On the one hand, by leveraging the commercial influence of the Su family of the Prince of Zhongshan in the Tang Dynasty, they destroyed the existing commercial system of the Tang Dynasty through a series of commercial battles;
On the other hand, they secretly funded and recruited anti-Tang righteous men to launch uprisings throughout the Tang Dynasty, causing internal strife within the Tang Dynasty first.
Ultimately, through a combination of commercial warfare, internal strife, and military operations on the Goguryeo Peninsula, the goal of restoring the kingdom was achieved.
Finally, Su Wan'er once again promised the young Prince Chen Longxiang, "Your Highness, everything I have done is for my family of three."
"Nominally, it is to support Xiao Lingwu to regain the throne, restore the previous dynasty, and restore the Great Xin, but in reality, the one in power in this restored Great Xin Dynasty is still you, the prince, Xiao Lingwu's stepfather!"
"Your Highness, we cannot succeed alone in this undertaking; we must seek strong support from both inside and outside. If Your Highness can join forces with the Su family of the Prince of Zhongshan, what difficulty will we face in achieving our great cause?"
"Your Highness, please think it over, even for my sake and for the sake of the child in my womb!"
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