He set that suspicion aside for the moment and went out to receive the visitor.

Lord Wang of the Court of State Ceremonial had come to see He Lingchuan and convey the royal will.

The Royal Court of Yuan proposed adding thirty years of tax revenue from the Hongya Trade Route as supplementary collateral for the loan. In other words, if the Royal Court of Yuan proved unable to repay the debt, all tariff revenue from the Hongya Trade Route for the next thirty years would belong to Rongshan.

Moreover, to safeguard its interests, Rongshan would be permitted to station personnel there and collect the revenue directly.

As He Lingchuan understood it, this was effectively permission to station troops. If you wanted people to hand over money willingly, you needed a complete local setup of force to ensure compliance.

Ordinarily, no sovereign state would tolerate another power stationing troops on its own territory, but the...