Chapter 487: Chapter 397: Strategic Layout (Seeking Subscriptions!)_1 Adding to this, Qiu Wei’s village brought in over thirty thousand people. With that... The population within this territory had officially exceeded two hundred and sixty thousand. Tang Qing had finally seen the potential to establish a mature industrial base and transform the Myanmar Bank Group into a superpower. Population could indeed yield profit. Otherwise, with only around one hundred thousand valuable citizens, it wouldn’t be possible to achieve any grand plans. There was a constant shortage of manpower and resources everywhere. Tang Qing even considered whether he should recruit workers from China in the future. Indeed, the construction and production here required a lot of manpower. However, such plans would have to wait. It would take some time to entirely utilize the population of over two hundred thousand people. ....... While the fighters were busy stirring up things here, news reached the surrounding forces as well. The eradication of two not-so-weak forces within one day had quite shocked them. That morning, they learned from the force near Myanmar, that the power across the Mara region had not only issued the so-called Asia Dollar but was also listed as one of the national reserve currencies by Myanmar. They had initially dismissed it, there had certainly been puppet forces before, and there was no direct contact with the Mara leaders or the opposing force. But such forces do need to be taught a lesson - this trend cannot continue to rise. So, Talents had called a meeting among his subordinates, who were clamoring for providing the Mara’s human and arms support in order to teach the traitorous force a lesson. Nonetheless, they received the "bad news" during the meeting that Mara had lost all own territories to their enemies, bringing the front-line right to their door. This was slightly alarming. Previously, with Mara in-between, they were shielded from any attacks. However, now that Mara had fallen, their region had turned into a front-line, potentially transforming into the direct battlefield. There was no way this wouldn’t shock them. All this had happened within just one day, wiping out Mara without making a sound. Were there plans for the force aligning with Myanmar to launch an attack on them from both sides next? This was a nightmare they didn’t dare to dream. So, Talents quickly placed a large number of soldiers on tight guard at the border. With the unclear situation, rushing forward was simply foolhardy. Even if Thailand got involved, it would game over for all of them. Therefore, everyone was acting with restraint, with strict instructions not to initiate a conflict with the other side. As evening approached... No news had come from the enemy camp, but Talents knew that there could be no mistake about this. He felt troubled and fearful, anxious that they might be staging a long-planned action. If Myanmar and Thailand both got involved, the situation would slip out of control. He also sent people to notify the real big shot near his territory. Amid all the hoopla at Talents’ place... "Boss, there’s someone from the enemy camp here," one of his subordinates reported, rushing in. "Who?" responded Talents, surprised. His sent men had disappeared like a stone sinking into the sea, and he had assumed that the enemy did not wish to negotiate. This made him somewhat anxious as an aloof enemy was a scary one, signifying a strong hand and complete disregard for them. Now it seemed that the enemy wasn’t avoiding negotiation, but instead wanted to do it face-to-face. "A young man. He says he wants to meet you. He didn’t bring any weapons or anyone else. He came empty-handed," the subordinate reported. "Let him in," Talents responded after some consideration. Subsequently... Following the subordinate, a young man walked into the room. If one were to pay attention... They would notice that he was the same fighter who had previously gone to negotiate with Karin. Looking at this retrained, yet deeply confident fighter, Talents felt the impulse to recruit him to his side. "Friend, are you from Myanmar?" Talents asked the most critical question. "No, no, no. We’re independent entities. We just had a small request and hence have cooperated with Yangon," the fighter replied. Tang Qing didn’t want to cause any confusion. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be able to develop rapidly in the future without running into trouble. Tang Qing didn’t want to open up a route to Myanmar in the short term. That would be troublesome indeed. The alliance was both a blessing and a curse, with each side thinking they got the better end of the deal. But once the borders were joined, Myanmar would never give up on the meat delivered right to their mouths. If a direct approach didn’t work, they would most likely start trouble covertly or even have a face-to-face conflict. So, the existence of Talents was necessary. Currently, within their territory there were two forces separating them from Myanmar, one was Talents while the other was a force even more significant than Talents. If Talents were eradicated, even if only one force separated them, Myanmar would surely demand their assistance or fearlessly launch a full-scale attack. Well, that would be anything but fun. There’s no need to dig your own grave. Taking over Talents’ territory brings no great benefit to our territorial development. Indeed it would cause more problems. Therefore, before finding a solution, there’s no way we could open a channel with Myanmar, nor continue our advancement. So Talents truly can’t die. Tang Qing wants to create such a situation: Talents is responsible for defending this territory while the major power defends Yangon. Different forces maintain a balanced situation. Only then. Can development construction be carried out peacefully in the territory in the short term. A macro perspective is essential in this situation. Blindly rushing to seize territory is absolutely foolish. Only when the forces in one’s territory are strong enough to completely maintain regional stability, can such action be taken. And Talents is just a part of the overall strategic layout. To protect the power of the territory and maintain a balanced situation, other plans will be implemented successively. On hearing this, Talents queried doubtfully, "An independent entity? So, is your requirement for Myanmar to accept the Asia Dollar as reserve currency a minor demand?" He thought, like those at Yangon, that Tang Qing wanted to take supplies from Myanmar. The fighter nodded and replied, "Of course. Otherwise, what could they give us? We are so far away, and we can’t transport anything. As for why we attacked Mara, it’s because their actions made us feel uneasy. With so many soldiers stationed at the border, who wouldn’t believe they weren’t targeting us? Therefore, we had to take action. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚 "I came here to express the intent of Leader Ling. There was absolutely no negotiation with Mara, which you should know. Because he intended to attack us, he is a tiger by our side that we must eliminate. But you are not. As long as you do not display any unfriendly actions towards us, we will not make a move." Talents, looking at the expressionless fighter, paused, and asked doubtfully, "Why am I not?" He only half believed the fighter’s words because he knew Mara had stationed soldiers at the border just in case; there was no intention of attacking. He didn’t believe Ling’s information could be so off. "Hehe, Leader Talents is very smart. I will speak frankly, we need stability," the fighter didn’t conceal anything; strategy was a straight path, an open scheme. Anyone who thought about it would understand, there was nothing to hide. "Stability?" Talents murmured. Thinking carefully, he was not a fool and immediately understood the other’s intentions. Stability is freedom from foreign interference. This external interference could come from two sources, his forces and those in Yangon. Talents immediately understood its profound implications. And he understood his use. Thinking of Leader Ling, whom he has never met, he admired Ling’s broad perspective. This is also a person unwilling to be beneath others. He doesn’t want to fraternize with them, nor does he want to be swallowed by Myanmar. They need a stable development environment and a stable relationship with foreign entities. At this thought, Talents finally understood. He felt somewhat proud, managing to figure out such a complex ’strategic issue’. "Haha, young man, I understand your intention. Rest assured, as long as you don’t make trouble, I won’t either," Talents laughed heartily. Only an astute person can seize the opportunity. He considered himself knowledgeable about current affairs. There’s no need for unnecessary battles and consumption, which would be a waste of money. "Thank you, Leader Talents. I hope we can maintain our current relationship in the future and avoid conflicts. Otherwise, if we truly go to war, it won’t be good for anyone and will likely benefit others," the fighter added. Talents agreed, nodding his head. Now, the other party has also become a tiger and was on par with him in strength. There is no benefit in continuing the fight, and it’s quite possible that others might take advantage of it. He replied, "I understand. By the way, I heard that you have a trade port with Thailand. I wonder if we could transport our goods there." Facing Talent’s attempt to take advantage of the situation, the fighter immediately refused. "I’m sorry, Leader Talents. We can’t agree to your request. We have already cut all the flowers in our territory and have strictly forbidden their circulation and production. If your people want to go through us, all I can say is we’re sorry but we will have to take action. So, I hope in the future Leader Talents can restrain your subordinates. If these people were to be caught, we won’t be responsible for repatriation. Please don’t ask for them back," the fighter threatened. Facing the fighter’s threat, Talents was a bit angry but didn’t lose his temper. If he couldn’t go along that route, he could travel other ways. Thinking about the market that Mara left, Talents was in a good mood. "Alright then," Talents said cheerfully. "However, Leader Talents, we actually do have an area we can cooperate on," the fighter suddenly said. "Oh? What’s that?" Talents asked doubtfully. The fighter slowly said, "Mining. I know you have channels to sell your gems and jewelry, but there’s no channel to transport out the mineral resources under your ground in large amounts. So, if you have various mines in your possession, firstly, you can mine them and sell them to us. We will surely give you a satisfying price. Secondly, you can sell the entire mining field to us. Our organization will handle the mining and you will have compensation." Talents was taken aback on hearing this. They want ores? Talents was a bit perplexed. What does the other party want with such a thing? Indeed, he had many gems, jewelry, and even gold mines under his control, all of which were hard currencies and had no issue being sold. However, without transportation and advanced mining tools, other minerals had no value because there was no way to transport them. They could only be buried in the hills. He even recalled that there were some regions with oil, but he didn’t know the quantity and didn’t take it seriously. PS: Third Chapter, there might still be one more today oh. Doubled monthly ticket period, seeking tickets! The explosion of updates during this period will make up for the previous debt, hehe!