Thread:Dark dwarves 2/@comment-26863727-20170312053932/@comment-26863727-20170321021606

How's this: Tacitus puts a high tariff on the Silk Road merchants who often come through the Empire in order to finance his military spending. The steady stream of traders slows and the Xin economy is weakened to some extent, so they demand that Tacitus lower his taxes so that trade will resume as normal. However, Tacitus also realizes that this is a prime opportunity- he might not get another chance at taking the east.

So, the premise is that the smaller Atmoran Empire has attacked by first choking trade to weaken the enemy a bit before attacking.

I'm not sure how much the economy of Xin would be affected, though.