Just as Great Xia officially sent troops to attack Jin Country, bad news spread from overseas.
9th month, 21st day, India's biggest territory Bengalore had upgraded to the Peacock Dynasty. The moment they upgraded, the neighboring Sri Lanka announced that they were going under the Peacock Empire, becoming a prefecture under their rule.
Sri Lanka was a tropical island that was located on the Indian Ocean. It was located at the south tip of South Asia, and its northwest faced Palk Straits and India.
Its advantage laid in its geographical position and its mining industry. It was an island that was rich with jewels and gems, and it was the 5th largest producer of precious stone. Amongst which, it was famous for rubies and sapphires.
Sri Lanka was called the precious gem empire and the pearl of the Indian Ocean, regarded by Marco Polo as the most beautiful island.
500 BC, some Indians moved from India over to Sri Lanka.
247BC, India's Ashoka sent his son to the island. Since then, the Indians changed from Brahmanism over to Buddhism. At 311 BC, Buddhism was spread from India to Sri Lanka.
Hence, it could be seen that India and Sri Lanka had a deep relationship, so them choosing to go under the Peacock Dynasty was not much of a surprise.
Before this, Sri Lanka was an important resource replenishing point on Great Xia's trade route. Ouyang Shuo had once tried to send envoys over to establish a tight relationship with Sri Lanka.
However, they did not reply.
If he forcefully attacked Sri Lanka, considering the nearby India, Ouyang Shuo had many worries. Who knew that Sri Lanka already had its mind set on seeking sanctuary from the Peacock Dynasty?
Hence, they were a big problem for Great Xia's trade route.
The moment Sri Lanka did not cooperate or if Peacock Dynasty showed animosity toward Great Xia, hundreds of merchant ships would be unable to obtain a stable resource point.
This was undoubtedly a huge hit for Great Xia voyage trading.
Just as Ouyang Shuo was ready to send out an envoy to Peacock Dynasty to probe their attitude, the Dawson Dynasty finally showed its fangs.
9th month, 23rd day, a normal day.
On this day, the Dawson Dynasty, House of Tudor, Romanov Dynasty, Great Zhou Dynasty, Arab Empire, Persian Empire, Germanic Dynasty, Gaolu Dynasty, and the newly formed Peacock Dynasty along with 30 large size territories all announced that they had become global trading partners, TWP for short.
The leader would be the Dawson Dynasty.
Based on the information revealed, to promote global trade, TWP members would have zero trading taxes and sign agreements with good terms with one another.
Without a doubt, this was a contract similar to the ones that Great Xia had signed, a global sort of trading organization.
More than half of the members of the agreement that Great Xia had signed with were in the TWP.
Especially the Mediterranean region. Although they did not dare to back out of the Great Xia trading agreement, after joining the TWP, they would definitely weaken their trading with Great Xia.
This was pretty much a fatal blow for Great Xia's trade.
And along with the Peacock Dynasty joining the TWP, their attitude toward Great Xia was obvious. Ouyang Shuo decided to cancel the envoy mission of proceeding there.
A huge dark cloud covered Great Xia. A storm was coming.
Shanhai City, Xia Palace.
Within the Imperial Reading Room, Cabinet Grand Secretary Jiang Shang, elder cum Administrative Mentor Court head secretary Zhang Liang, Financial Minister Fan Li, and Military Affairs Minister Du Ruhui were summoned and gathered here.
Ouyang Shuo said openly, "The truth is placed in front of us. TWP is a trading card that the Silver Hand threw out to restrict us, so we need to treat it carefully."
Thinking back to the trading lock that Great Xia had just put on Great Zhou, Ouyang Shuo laughed bitterly, "They really are going an eye for an eye. The moment Great Xia acts, Silver Hand retaliates."
For Silver Hand to last for numerous hundreds of years, they were obviously not simple.
Along with the global merging situation intensifying, Silver Hand that was purposely split up by Gaia had swiftly gathered together again, coming together to form a shocking collective strength.
TWP was just their first try.
In the future, using their members spread across the globe, Silver Hand would definitely take more shocking actions. Regardless of what they did, Great Xia would face the blunt of it.
That was because the current Great Xia had become Silver Hand's obstacle in the game world.
"To Great Xia, the huge challenges have just begun." Ouyang Shuo judged the situation as such. Thinking about it, hot blood rose up in his heart. He was filled with determination.
Gaia had thrown many challenges to Great Xia in the 5th year, and they had overcome all of them.
This pretty much gave people the false impression that Great Xia was standing at the peak and that no one could shake and exceed them. "It's time to wake up." Ouyang Shuo looked toward Jiang Shang and the others and warned, "Recently, the Imperial Court is showing some arrogance, I am really worried about it."
That's right. Great Xia won victory after victory, and in China, they had no enemies. Even Great Zhou was being beaten so badly that they could not raise their heads. As a result, they would obviously start to underestimated their enemies.
Jiang Shang and the others exchanged glances with one another and nodded. Following which, Jiang Shang stood up and bowed, "Not being able to help bear the worries of the king is my mistake, please punish me."
If there was something wrong with the Imperial Court, the Cabinet had the most responsibility.
As the Grand Secretary, Jiang Shang had responsibility.
Ouyang Shuo waved him off, "All of you rise, this did not happen in a day. Please raise your alertness and do not let this continue."
The Silver Hand's actions might not be a bad thing for Great Xia this time.
"Yes, my king!"
"Let's get back to the topic." Ouyang Shuo became serious, "Voyage trading is the key to our dynasty, and we cannot let anything huge happen to it. The formation of the TWP and the influences it will cause, let the Financial Court evaluate it."
"The main matter at hand is how to strike back and announce that Great Xia does not allow others to challenge us. Only then can we stabilize our allies and partners, especially those who are uncertain about joining the TWP camp."
When power was challenged, the best way to fight back was war.