Another scene of praying mantis catching cicadas ended in just over ten minutes, and Qin Yan immediately received Ao's signal.

Why does Ao contact himself?

Usually, there are no special circumstances, Ao will not send a message over, because Qin Yan takes ordinary people around to fight, and there is no time to chat with him at all.

Something's got to be right!

The first thing he thought of was whether there would be any bad moves from the top of the Hank Empire.

Soon the two got in touch.

Due to the distance, there was no real-time call, and Ao carefully explained the cause and effect through a text message detailing the whole thing.

"What does this have to do with us? Don't bother with it, right? Harley pouted.

"It's really none of us, but ......"

Hou Qing's eyes flashed with a gleam, looked at Qin Yan, who also showed a different color, and said, "This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. ”

Qin Yan nodded, and what Hou Qing thought of also thought: "Go!" Hurry back as fast as you can, don't ...... Let Ao tell the emperor to make a decision when we go back. ”

This time, it was no longer a four-star merchant ship disguised as a passing merchant, but a six-star warship powered by gray crystal and full of power.

More than a billion light-years.

With the performance of a five-star battleship, under the impetus of Gray Crystal, it only takes a day or two to arrive, and it is only a matter of a few hours to change to a six-star battleship.

Of course, after entering the Imperial Capital's defensive circle, it will take longer to arrive due to the influence of the equipment that curbs wormhole jumping.

If it were not for special circumstances, it was impossible for the containment system in the imperial capital's defensive circle to be shut down casually, so the entire trip took more than ten days.

Fortunately, before the deadline of half a month, we finally arrived at the target - the imperial capital.

"Su Hao, why are you back?"

Hearing someone report that it was Prince Su Hao who asked to see him, Odrew was very surprised, and he saw Qin Yan and his party in the private living room.

Because of Qin Yan's status and the increase in trust in him, he asked Ao to ask Qin Yan what he thought about this matter.

But it's just to tell you that he doesn't need to make a special trip over, right?

Although he couldn't figure out where Qin Yan had gone for more than two years, one thing was for sure, Qin Yan was definitely not in the empire.

"Emperor, that envoy hasn't left yet, has he?" Seeing Odrew walk in, Qin Yan got up from his seat.

"Not yet, it's the deadline in two days." Speaking of this, Odrew was not happy.

"What are you going to do?"

"There are only two ways, either pay the offerings according to the other party's requirements, or find another country as the suzerain, but ......"

Odru sighed helplessly and said, "I've thought about it these days. If the suzerainty is re-chosen, the Naswell Empire will definitely hold a grudge and tell the story of that batch of resources, and it will be equally impossible for the new suzerainty to let go of such a large piece of fat. ”

Qin Yan nodded and said, "Greed is on the one hand, and on the other hand, it is because the amount of that batch of strategic resources really makes the suzerains feel threatened. ”

"yes, so we have no other way, alas...... I feel a loss when I think about it! ”

"It's really a loss, but I and my brothers exchanged our lives for those resources, and we gave away half of them for nothing--I'm even more unwilling than you." Qin Yan frowned.

"You ......"

Hearing him say this, Odru couldn't help but be stunned and said, "Do you have any thoughts when you come back this time?" ”

Qin Yan smiled noncommittally and said in a low voice: "Emperor, I think we can find a new suzerain. ”

"I just said it, and the result is the same."

"Different?"

"Huh?"

"What if we skip the ranks?"

There are many levels of higher civilizations, and they are not exactly divided according to this hierarchy between the overlords and vassals of the outer circle.

For example, among the vassals of the Lyra Empire, there are powerful seventh-level civilizations, and there are also vassals with a minimum of only fourth-level civilizations.

Why?

This is because of the high civilization, there is another regulation.

This regulation is to divide the entire area where the higher civilization is located, the inner circle and the outer circle: the inner circle is not allowed to explore the unknown universe, this is to avoid the conflict between the high-level civilization, in order to compete for resources, and finally extend to the extremely high-level civilization to fight hard, resulting in an unimaginable situation.

As a result, civilizations with a higher inner circle had only three ways to obtain resources: commerce, taxation, and worship by subjects.

The civilization of the outer circle has one more way, that is, to explore the unexplored universe and obtain various resources.

It is precisely for this reason that the higher civilizations in the outer circle, during the exploration of the unexplored universe, will discover a large number of new civilizations, and eventually include these civilizations in the category of subject countries, so that the subject countries of the outer circle civilizations are uneven, and there is a huge gap between the subject countries of two or three levels.

The inner ring is different.

A clear hierarchy is strictly enforced here, and they further refine the hierarchy of civilization into three levels: elementary, middle, and high.

Like the Hank Empire, a country in the middle of the eighth-level civilization, its vassal countries are all eighth-level initial civilizations without exception, and the suzerainty is an eighth-level high-level civilization: this is a plan made by those super-top civilizations that are in the high-level civilization circle and the most core area, and the number is scarce.

To put it bluntly, the purpose of this is to make the countries that are also ninth-level civilizations form an extremely strict hierarchy, so that the civilization at the top level is more transcendent.

What does it mean to skip the level and choose the suzerain?

Name implies.

Originally, the suzerainty of the Hank Empire could only be a high-level country at the eighth level, but according to Qin Yan's meaning, it was to choose a higher-level country as the suzerain.

In this way, the Hank Empire will choose a country that is at the beginning of the ninth-level civilization as the suzerain, and the immediate problem will also be solved.

Why?

Because the country of the ninth-level civilization has a wider territory, and it has also crossed the fundamental gap between the eighth-level and the ninth-level, there will be a qualitative improvement in strength. This led to the suzerainty of the ninth-level civilization, and the treasury income was far hundreds of times higher than that of the current suzerainty of the Hank Empire.

Therefore, even if the treasury income of the Hank Empire increases significantly, it will give the current suzerainty a sense of crisis, and if it is replaced by a suzerainty of a ninth-level civilization, there will be no such problem.

If this step is successful, the benefits go far beyond that!

First of all, the influence of the Hank Empire in this starry sky will be greatly enhanced.

Secondly, the territory of the empire can be replanned by means of escalation, and the territory of the Hank Empire will be increased by at least several times by those empires at the top.

There are many benefits to an increased territory: a huge increase in taxes and business revenues, the ability to recruit more people into the army, and so on.

But!

"It can't be!"

Odru immediately shook his head in denial, and said in a deep voice: "The ninth-level civilization will not accept it at all, and the Hank Empire, as a vassal country, violates the rules formulated by the entire high-level civilization - the scientific and technological level of the civilization has not reached the corresponding level, and it can only be a vassal state of the eighth-level post-level civilization." ”

"Emperor, what do you think is the basis for judging this so-called rule and the level of the regulations?"

"Technology, of course...... It should be said that it is the overall national strength of a country. ”

"That's right, it's national strength, not technology."

"But technology and national strength are completely consistent, without strong enough technology, how can there be a matching national strength?"

Odru frowned, and said with a wry smile: "With our current national strength, it is not even one-tenth of the Naswell Empire, how can it be compared?" ”

"You say...... If we go to war with the Naswell Empire, will the Naswell Empire's overlord state intervene? Qin Yan smiled brightly.

"Of course not, the conflict between the suzerainty and the subject country will not be taken care of by the higher-level suzerain. What's more, the suzerainty can't beat the vassal countries, what kind of face does such a suzerainty have to gain a foothold? Not to mention that there is no face and no helper, and the suzerains at a higher level will not only ignore them, but will most likely accept the lower-level vassal countries as direct ...... Su Hao! You...... You don't think ......?"

As soon as he finished explaining Qin Yan's 'question', Odru's face suddenly changed drastically, and he looked at Qin Yan with shocked eyes: "Are you crazy?" You...... Do you want to go to war with the Naswell Empire? That would wipe out the entire empire! ”

It is almost never the case that a subject goes to war against a suzerain.

Theoretically, what Qin Yan said is indeed fine, but the key is how can a vassal country be an opponent of the suzerain?

"No way!"

Staring at Qin Yan deadly, Odru shouted angrily: "You are too reckless! Do you think that with those hundreds of thousands, living corpses with the strength of the Eight Heavens, they can be invincible in the world? I can tell you without exaggeration that the power in your hands is not comparable to that of the Hank Empire - although you have about a third more power than the Empire in terms of the strength of high-ranking martial artists, the Empire has countless warships, and in the event of a devastating war, you can use the Gray Crystals in the treasury to make each warship exert its great power. In other words, even if your power is fully infused, it will not be enough to double the power of the Empire, and the Naswell Empire is more than ten times more powerful than us. ”

"Don't worry, I won't use the Empire's warrior power, I can guarantee that."

"That's not going to work either!"

"Please listen to me."

Qin Yan showed a smile and said, "I'm just sending troops in the name of the empire, if I lose, you will charge me with rebellion, just say that this is my idea alone, and it has nothing to do with the empire." In addition, I don't need any strategic and conventional resources from the Empire, I just need warships - as many six-star ships as possible. Of course, I'll give you a lot of resources to cover the value of these ships. ”

What's the situation?

At this time, Odrew did not refuse immediately, because according to Qin Yan's statement, once the empire is defeated, there is no substantial loss, and once it wins, all the benefits are the empire's.

There is no loss if you lose, and it will be a great benefit if you win, enough to expand the empire's territory several times, so why not agree to this kind of deal?

"Are you really sure you can win? But the power in your hands ......"

Odru didn't want Qin Yan to die, after all, his existence not only gave the empire an additional group of elite powerhouses, but also continuously brought a lot of strategic resources to the empire.

"It's a big deal." Qin Yan did not give an absolutely positive answer.