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Upon hearing Wu Junwan's words, Lu Chen smiled faintly before responding, "Princess Junwan, you must have misunderstood; I have never coveted that position in the Capital City."

"My father, the Sum Emperor, loves his subjects as his own children and is benevolent and wise. He is especially caring and considerate towards his own children, and I am his proudest child. How could I possibly commit such disloyal acts of seeking power and usurping the throne?"

After listening to Lu Chen's words, Wu Junwan chuckled softly and then said, "North Prince really knows how to jest.

If your relationship with the Sum Emperor is truly as harmonious as you describe, the court of the Great Sum wouldn't have stationed troops in Qi Country, nor would North Country have dispatched a hundred thousand troops to the border of Qi Country to face off against the army of the Da Yue Dynasty."

Lu Chen said, "There's no need to discuss this topic; I am absolutely not going to provoke a civil war in Great Sum. I'd like to thank Great Wu for the kind intentions here."

Seeing how Lu Chen bluntly shut down the conversation, Wu Junwan essentially understood that there was a high probability that Lu Chen wouldn't instigate a civil war in Great Sum in the short term.

If Lu Chen truly was the Tower Master of the Rain-listening Pavilion, that would mean he had been deeply concerned about intelligence work from the start. Now, with the Rain-listening Pavilion spread throughout several dynasties, gathering intelligence would be easy.

The more a ruler values intelligence from the various dynasties, the more shrewd they are, and not so easily influenced.

Moreover, since the Qianhai Commercial Association began cooperating with the Rain-listening Pavilion, it's likely that the pavilion has already gathered quite a bit of insider information about Great Wu through them.

The objective of their current mission to North Country had probably been made crystal clear to the North Prince early on, thus trying to incite the North Prince to engage in a civil war with the Da Yue Dynasty at this time was virtually impossible.

The fisherman benefits when the snipe and clam grapple; it isn't so simple for Great Wu to be that fisherman.

Now, the only option was to fall back on plan B, which was to strike some kind of deal with North Country and then prod the court of Great Sum to send troops against them.

Then, Wu Junwan said with a slight smile, "I have heard that the North Prince has signed a trade agreement with the Da Yue Dynasty, enhancing trade relations between the two sides. It seems you must value commercial development highly, North Prince. In my view, Great Wu also has commodities that North Country needs.

I wonder if Great Wu could, like the Da Yue, sign a trade agreement with North Country?"

Hearing Wu Junwan's words, Lu Chen knew she hadn't given up on disrupting Great Sum. However, he didn't mind it in the slightest.

If Great Wu wanted to sign a trade agreement with them, then so be it. For North Country at present, importing some resources was still overly reliant on a single source.

Although North Country now included North Land within its own maps, they hadn't started large-scale mining of the resources available in North Country. They hadn't even located some ore resources, let alone knew where to mine, so for now, they remained dependent on trade.

Great Wu was vast and rich in resources, so if they were willing to engage in trade cooperation, it would certainly be a great boon for North Country.

With this, North Country wouldn't be as reliant on the resources of Great Sum.

Of course, this was merely a transitional period for North Country, which wouldn't last too long.

Lu Chen then spoke with a smile, "This is certainly no issue. However, Princess Junwan has only arrived in North Country today, and it isn't suitable to discuss too many political matters. Let's leave the issue of the trade agreement until tomorrow, shall we?"

Just as Wu Junwan was about to say something, Lu Chen continued, "I've heard that it was Princess Junwan's merit that Great Wu was able to quell the internal strife in the dynasty. Having a woman who is talented in both literature and military in Great Wu is indeed the dynasty's good fortune!"

Upon hearing Lu Chen's words, Wu Junwan smiled lightly and then said, "North Prince makes jest. It was the soldiers, fighting for Great Wu against the rebels, who stabilized the southeast insurgency. How could I steal credit from the soldiers?"

Lu Chen said with a smile, "Princess Junwan is too modest. Even excellent soldiers need a competent commander to unleash their combat power. I've heard that before Princess Junwan led the troops, there were two princes of Great Wu who, with the dynasty's elite, attempted to suppress the rebels.

As a result, not only did the two princes fail to eradicate the rebels, they even caused Great Wu to lose a number of elite soldiers."

Hearing Lu Chen's remark, Wu Ming's face beside Wu Junwan turned dark in an instant.

One of those princes Lu Chen mentioned was Wu Ming himself, making him feel that Lu Chen was taking a dig at him.

Although he was irritated, considering that they had a purpose in visiting North Country, he had to swallow his discomfort, no matter how uneasy he felt.

At that moment, Wu Junwan also realized Lu Chen's intentions. She didn't believe that Lu Chen was unaware that Wu Ming was one of those two princes. Yet, Lu Chen had chosen this moment to bring up the matter, and even compared her, a woman, to Wu Ming.

Clearly, Lu Chen was trying to sow discord between her and Wu Ming.

In order not to let Lu Chen continue to foment dissension, Wu Junwan hastily said, "Oh, there's something I forgot to mention to the North Prince. I've heard that the North Prince has a fondness for beauties, so for this visit to North Country, I have specially prepared a magnificent gift for you."

Upon hearing this, Lu Chen said with a laugh, "Oh? Is the grand gift Princess Junwan has prepared for me a beauty?"

Wu Junwan smiled slightly and then said, "Not just one, but ten exquisite dancers. May I let them come in?"

Lu Chen responded, "Of course."

After hearing this, Wu Junwan then said to the members of her entourage, "Go and bring them in."

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