The Rise of the Kingdom of Qin

In the capital, right under the Emperor’s nose, officials quietly disappeared one after another, only to be replaced just as quietly. No one seemed to notice a thing.

A handful of officials might have sensed something amiss, but before they could even voice their suspicions, they too were whisked away.

The Jin capital appeared peaceful on the surface, but beneath this calm, a sweeping purge and replacement of officials was unfolding at breakneck speed.

All these impostor officials were taking orders directly from Princess Jade Hayes and Alexander Hayes, stirring up the political waters in Jin until they were utterly muddied.

Leonard Li, however, remained completely in the dark—because even among his closest advisors, Princess Jade Hayes had planted her own people.

By now, the struggle between Leonard Li and his father, Lord Huainan, had spilled out into the open.

Lord Huainan was scouring the land for fertile women to bear him more heirs.

Even with the help of Henry Thompson, Leonard Li’s power base was thin. With Princess Jade Hayes’s agents stirring up trouble, Lord Huainan seized the opportunity and actually managed to father two sons.

Having two sons late in life, Lord Huainan was naturally overjoyed.

Leonard Li, now saddled with two healthy and fertile younger brothers, realized his own claim to the throne was under serious threat—and began plotting to eliminate them to secure his crown.

Brothers turning on each other, fathers and sons at odds—Leonard Li and Lord Huainan found themselves dragged into a whirlpool of internal strife, unable to escape, powerless to control their fate.

And yet, these two who fancied themselves clever had no idea that the mastermind behind it all was none other than Chancellor Lily Evans, far away in Qin!

After stirring up the waters in Jin, White Pete's team quietly slipped out and headed for Chu to repeat their covert operation.

One by one, the officials of Chu were replaced by doubles. All of Lord Gu Liangzhe's years of careful plotting for revenge were undone by this surging undercurrent.

All the power players and key officials that Gu Liangzhe had personally raised up were swapped for Lily’s people. Yet Gu Liangzhe remained blissfully unaware, still dreaming of his revenge against Lily Evans and Alexander Hayes…

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Three years later—

Qin, Chang’an City. Lily Evans sat reading secret reports from Jin and Chu.

After three years of meticulous planning, Lily’s counterintelligence web was finally complete—her agents now occupied key posts in both kingdoms. Meanwhile, within Qin, a steady stream of false information was being fed to Leonard Li and Gu Liangzhe.

In short, Lily had both kingdoms’ movements in the palm of her hand, while Leonard Li and Gu Liangzhe remained utterly clueless about her true activities.

Standing atop Qin’s towering city gate, Lily gazed out at the vast fields beyond.

It was harvest season once again. Every farm in Qin now used seeds, pesticides, and fertilizers imported by Lily from overseas. Yields had multiplied several times over—the grain produced in three years could feed the kingdom’s people and army for thirty!

With grain at home and money in hand, the people flourished. Commerce, too, boomed under Lily’s energetic support.

Qin’s textile industry was thriving, practically monopolizing the market in Jin’s southern regions.

Meanwhile, the porcelain academy in Jing Town was yielding impressive results. Master craftsmen enjoyed generous state support and devoted themselves to developing higher-quality porcelain.

In just three years, Jing Town’s porcelain had made a quantum leap in quality, cornering the overseas market.

The Medical Academy was also flourishing. Its first graduating class of five hundred female doctors was dispatched across Qin.

Thanks to these female doctors, the survival rate for mothers and infants soared. In just three years, Qin’s population had doubled!