So the plan is to sell pearls to the nobles and get money that way. Causing those nobles to raise taxes and make their citizens angry. Then swoop in take over the villages and use their countries own money raised from selling the pearls to take care of the citizens making them loyal to the empire. After that defeat these nobles and the nation, take back the pearls after they were processed into jewelry. Then you have taken over a nation and the citizens are thanking you for it, the entrenched bad nobles are gone, and you spent the cost of what it takes to run your army, with almost zero casualties. Then humiliate that no longer royal family. That's how villains conquer, and it's glorious.
Read Cursed Princess Club, it's finished and fantastic.
