Deposed Crown Prince: After three years of service on the frontier, the entire court knelt and begge

"I can even say that Xiao Ce will agree to your conditions, then use your resources to strengthen himself, and finally betray you! That kind of person is inherently untamable!"

After the woman wearing the Y mask spoke, everyone at the golden round table looked at her.

"You seem to know a lot about Xiao Ce?"

The woman in the Y mask smiled and said, "Don't you know? Our files contain all his past experiences. This man is very cunning, fickle, and adept at leveraging power. He's not suitable to be won over by them, so I object!"

After the woman in the Y mask finished speaking, a man wearing an M mask said, "I support this. If we support that Xiao Ce, it's very likely that he'll take everything we provide and then come after us."

"So, you mean to keep that Japanese emperor in power?"

"Of course not. We've said before, you can't put all your eggs in one basket... Haven't you thought about that Slavic person at all?"

A man wearing a mask number A spoke up: "That Shahar from the Slavic country isn't a good person either..."

The man in the M mask continued, "They're definitely not good people! But as Xiao Ce becomes more and more powerful and assertive, I don't believe they're not feeling threatened. You know, many Slavic soldiers were also killed by the Turkic people under Xiao Ce's control... So, I think we can give it a try."

The woman in the Y-mask said, "That's right, I think this is feasible. If Shahar cannot be breached, there are still many oligarchs in their Slavic country. I think the Slavic country could be a breakthrough point."

Another person said, "That's right. Actually, we can learn from the failed investment in Fusang. Supporting Fusang and the Slavic countries together, or even having them check and balance each other, is in our best interest..."

...

They talked and talked and quickly reached an agreement.

The white man in the suit with the hooked nose, who was in the lead, spoke up: "Alright, it seems everyone has reached a consensus. So, according to the rules, let's continue voting. Let me summarize what everyone just discussed in the meeting."

"There are a few main ideas among the people. One is to support the Emperor of Fusang while also supporting Xiao Ce."

"Secondly, we should support the Emperor of Japan and then support the Slavic countries, so that they can unite to eliminate Xiao Ce first, and then have them check and balance each other."

"Thirdly, we should first support the Slavs, and after they deal with Xiao Ce, let them fight among themselves. The one who wins in the end will be supported by us as their agent in East Asia."

After analyzing the situation, the white man in the suit with the hooked nose continued, "Currently, these are the main solutions everyone has. Are there any other suggestions?"

These people looked at each other...

They then shook their heads.

The white man in the suit with the hooked nose nodded: "Very well, since that's the case... then let's begin the vote. No abstentions allowed. As usual, if it's a tie, we'll continue to discuss it and then vote again until the result is in."

The people on the other side nodded in agreement; this wasn't the first time they'd done something like this.

Therefore, they are very familiar with this...

Soon everyone was voting, but their identities were kept secret, and all those who came were proxies.

So they started counting the votes right away.

They were almost unanimously in agreement, all choosing to simultaneously support the Fusang and Slavic peoples, allowing them to cooperate first, eliminate Xiao Ce, and then have them check and balance each other.

After the hook-nosed white man in the suit finished speaking, he bowed slightly to everyone present before saying, "Thank you all for your valuable opinions. We will now proceed with the arrangements."

The various agents nodded in greeting and then left.

...

After Ries returned to the Slavic country, several of their oligarchs came to visit him.

They all looked like they were there to interrogate him.

At this moment, in the royal palace of the Slavic country, Ries stood to one side.

The oligarchs looked extremely grim.

Shahar naturally knew what was going on, even though he had already spoken with Ries.

However, Shahar will naturally continue to pretend.

At this moment, Shahar also had a dark expression on his face.

Constantine Eugene spoke first: "Your Highness, is that all you brought back from Fusang?"

"To be honest, those things are barely enough to cover our costs this time... We've been working on this for nothing, haven't we?"

"Yes, Your Highness! Fusang is such a large country, and you only brought back these things. Isn't there something wrong with that?"

...

The oligarchs were criticizing each other.

The implication was that Rhys was siding with outsiders.

Rhys smiled helplessly: "Gentlemen, do you think I, Rhys, am that kind of person? I've already explained the situation once. They took all the valuables with them on the ship. Their ships were all sunk to the bottom of the sea."

"As for the grain, it was indeed left there, but as everyone has seen, Xiao Ce borrowed it from our Slavic country because he still wanted to utilize those people from Fusang..."

"Actually, Xiao Ce didn't want Fusang. He tried to contact us several times, preferring the limited supplies we had... to the mess that was Fusang. I had to coax and trick him into giving it to us..."

"Gentlemen, if you have any concerns, I can go with him now and make him take these things away. If he lets us occupy Fusang, he'll definitely agree without hesitation!"

"If you all feel this is unfair, I'll write him a letter right now. You didn't go to Japan, so you don't know the situation there... We never expected that their emperor would use the tactic of sacrificing the army to save the general, turning tens of thousands of Japanese soldiers into ordinary civilians."

"If we slaughter all the people of Fusang, then Fusang will be a dead end, but keeping them alive means there's always danger... so it's a complete hot potato... Does any gentleman have a solution? You can take over?"

"Actually, Xiao Ce isn't stupid. He knows that once they take over Fusang, it will be our gatekeeper. The reason he doesn't dare tell us is because he doesn't want to damage our relationship..."

"If you gentlemen would like to switch, that is certainly possible."

The oligarchs looked at each other after hearing what Ries said, but none of them responded. Everyone knew that Japan was a hot potato.