```
The shopkeeper of Gold Coin and the owner of the gambling house, though merely two dogs serving Zhi Ning and Zhi Li, had held their positions for many years.
For Zhi Ning to kill these two dogs, Suo Lun's influence was still too small.
After all, the corpulent shopkeeper of Gold Coin had not been lying. Though he held no title, the earls were all very courteous, even eager to please him. Simply because he was a close associate of Prince Zili.
And Suo Lun was merely an earl's heir, and a doomed one at that, to think about getting rid of these two close associates of Zili was indeed overly ambitious.
But since Suo Lun had said as much, Duke Zhi Ting was not inclined to make trouble. He put away his smile and said, "You proposed at the Royal City Academy that the Kingdom's expansion strategy should develop the navy and launch a southern offensive against the heart of the Barbaric Wilderness Plains, correct?"
Lanling said, "Yes."
