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

Night Owl nodded, knowing that Xiao Ce was about to close the net.

At this moment, Night Cat also changed how she addressed Xiao Ce: "Your Highness...would you like to change back to your original appearance?"

After listening to Night Cat's words, Xiao Ce noticed that Night Cat seemed somewhat excited.

"What? Are you getting tired of looking at my face?"

Night Owl chuckled: "Not really, it's just that the face is yours."

After changing his clothes, Xiao Ce took Night Cat and went out.

After they went outside, Xiao Ce said to Night Cat, "It's not time yet. This face should appear one last time."

After hearing Xiao Ce's words, Night Cat smiled slightly and then asked, "Will Lin Hai recognize you?"

Xiao Ce nodded and said to Night Cat, "Of course... I have a way to make Lin Hai recognize me..."

The night owl nodded.

Seeing that Night Owl seemed to be in a good mood, Xiao Ce asked him what was making him so happy.

Night Cat said to Xiao Ce, "Your Highness, I'm happy for you if you act as yourself again. You shouldn't have done that..."

Xiao Ce naturally knew what Night Cat was worried about, and said with a smile, "Do you mean to flatter them?"

The night owl nodded.

Xiao Ce laughed: "I was just flattering them. What I wanted was their lives... their destruction... Which do you think is more important?"

Night Owl replied with a smile, "Your Highness, how could I not understand that... I just feel that you should be high above everyone else."

Xiao Ce laughed again: "I have never been high and mighty."

As they spoke, their carriage entered Linhai County and then arrived at Lin Hai's residence.

Xiao Ce arrived easily without encountering any difficulties.

The main reason was that the Okamoto family's army was welcomed and was now completely drunk, so if they wanted to kill them, they could do so at any time.

However, Xiao Ce made them come to him personally, to become slaves and do hard labor for him.

After all, the Xiao Kingdom had suffered severe losses in human resources due to years of turmoil.

Regardless of what Xiao Ce and his group wanted to do—mining various ores, growing potatoes, and building various infrastructure projects—they all required manual labor.

These Japanese people considered them as people who had come to atone for their sins.

Xiao Ce felt no remorse whatsoever towards this country and this people.

After all, if they were to gain power, they would suffer even more at their hands...

At the door, Night Owl spoke with the butler, who asked them to wait a moment.

The butler then went to find Lin Hai.

Lin Hai had gone to sleep.

But when he heard the butler knocking, he asked sleepily, "What is it?"

The butler was holding a piece of paper with a single character on it.

The steward, not understanding the message, said to Lin Hai, "Your Excellency, there's someone outside with this paper, asking me to give it to you personally... He says that once you see this paper, you will definitely want to see him..."

Lin Hai's expression changed drastically after looking at the paper. In fact, the character didn't have any special meaning; it was just something recorded in a codebook that Xiao Ce had given him.

"Where is the person who gave you this paper? What does he look like?" Lin Hai asked excitedly.

The steward bowed slightly as before: "Your Excellency, you should have seen him before; he's the representative of that agent, the one accompanying him..."

Lin Hai stood silently in place, lost in thought, seemingly trying to recall who that person was.

Seeing that Lin Hai didn't respond, the steward asked Lin Hai, "Your Excellency, would you like to go and see him?"

Lin Hai was silent for a moment, then said, "I'll see him! Of course I'll go see him."

He then walked out.

Upon reaching the door, the first thing I saw was the Night Owl.

Lin Hai, still polite, asked in Japanese, "Sir, you were looking for me?"

Night Cat looked at Lin Hai and smiled slightly, then replied in a thick Xiao dialect, "It wasn't me... it was my husband who contacted you."

Lin Hai was visibly taken aback after hearing what Ye Mao said, but he figured it wasn't strange for a Japanese person to be able to speak Xiao language, so he didn't think much of it. He just thought that Ye Mao's Xiao language was very standard.

Hearing this, he naturally looked towards the carriage.

Xiao Ce then got off the carriage.

Lin Hai naturally recognized Xiao Ce, but in Lin Hai's eyes, Xiao Ce was currently called Okamoto Ichisaku...

"Mr. Okamoto?"

Xiao Ce nodded slightly: "Let's go inside and talk."

Lin Hai nodded repeatedly after hearing Xiao Ce's words.

Then he made a gesture of invitation.

Upon arriving at a reception room, Lin Hai invited Xiao Ce to sit down and then got straight to the point: "Mr. Xiao Ce, you declined our invitation to the banquet earlier... I wonder what you wish to ask us now that you've come so late at night?"

Lin Hai was smart enough not to ask about the symbol.

Xiao Ce looked at Lin Hai and said, "Didn't you come to see me because of that character?"

Lin Hai continued to feign ignorance, saying, "Characters? What characters? I heard from the steward that your personal guard came looking for me. I'm actually not the picture on that paper!"

Xiao Ce smiled slightly and said to Lin Hai, "Not bad, you're quite vigilant. There are no outsiders here... What's wrong, don't you recognize me?"

Xiao Ce got straight to the point.

However, this made Lin Hai even more vigilant.

"You...you...aren't you Okamoto Kazusaku?"

Seeing Lin Hai's continued wary expression, Xiao Ce smiled slightly and then said, "Alright... just keep pretending... I am Xiao Ce!"

After Xiao Ce spoke, things turned out exactly as he had imagined.

Lin Hai didn't take it seriously, and instead said to Xiao Ce, "Mr. Okamoto, please don't joke around... I don't know what news you've heard... Please don't test me... I sincerely want to cooperate with you..."

Xiao Ce then asked Lin Hai to bring paper and pen, and then wrote some text that needed to be encrypted on the paper.

Only Xiao Ce could understand these encrypted texts; Lin Hai needed the encrypted text to translate them.

Xiao Ce handed the paper to Lin Hai.

Lin Hai looked at Xiao Ce suspiciously, and Xiao Ce smiled slightly: "Go and take the encrypted copy I gave you and translate it. I'll wait for you here."

When Xiao Ce presented the encrypted copy, Lin Hai was already somewhat convinced.

However, he didn't say anything, but left for a while, and then translated it in his own private room.

...

At this moment, Night Cat, who was waiting in the reception room, asked Xiao Ce, "Is Your Highness capable?"

Xiao Ce smiled and said, "Of course, no problem... but Lin Hai is a suspicious person... he might still have doubts... but now that I'm here, I'll make him believe me..."

Just as the two were talking, Lin Hai rushed over.

After Lin Hai came in, he stared at Xiao Ce for a few seconds.

He truly couldn't reconcile the person before him with Xiao Ce.

However, the handwriting of the coded letter written by Xiao Ce himself, compared with the previous ones, is indeed Xiao Ce's own handwriting...

While the codebook could be stolen, the handwriting was very difficult to imitate.

However, this person in front of him and Xiao Ce really couldn't unite.

However, after staring at it for a few seconds, he still chose to trust it.

He knelt down before Xiao Ce: "Greetings, Your Highness... Your Highness, what happened to you?"

Looking at Lin Hai, Xiao Ce realized that he was clearly smarter than he had imagined.

"It's a long story, but I'm back this time. Those idiots have taken the bait, and it should be getting underway soon..."

"Have you done everything I asked you to prepare?"

Lin Hai saw that Xiao Ce didn't waste any words and went straight to the point.

His mind was a little slow to catch up with Xiao Ce, and he stared at Xiao Ce blankly for a moment: "Your Highness, which matter are you referring to?"

He simply couldn't keep up with Xiao Ce's thinking.

Secondly, he genuinely wanted to test Xiao Ce.

Xiao Ce continued, getting straight to the point: "Hide all your ships, and then change their paint scheme to match the picture I gave you!"

Lin Hai saw that Xiao Ce accurately recited Da Lei's orders to him.

This further increased Lin Hai's trust in Xiao Ce.

Seeing Lin Hai standing there dumbfounded, Xiao Ce found it somewhat amusing and quickly asked, "Why are you standing there like an idiot? I'm asking you a question!"

Lin Hai, after hearing Xiao Ce's words, finally came to his senses and nodded repeatedly at Xiao Ce.

"Yes, yes, Your Highness, everything is ready. Our ships have already taken refuge in a secret port near the west... We'll be there in three days."

"And the paint job has already been completed!"

Xiao Ce nodded and said to Lin Hai, "Very good. When they come, you hide the army and the navy to take over all the ships here... and arrest all the garrison troops, and then send them to grow potatoes!"

Only now did Lin Hai no longer doubt what Lin Hai had said.

At the same time, it is also a firm belief.

"Your Highness...it really is you!"

Looking at Lin Hai's tearful face, Xiao Ce smiled helplessly.

"So you finally believe I'm Xiao Ce?"

Lin Hai nodded: "Your Highness, I always thought you were using a trick to trick me into revealing information. However, the way you speak and your attitude right now... only you would act like this... makes me have no choice but to believe that you are indeed Your Highness..."

Seeing this, Xiao Ce said, "Alright, then I'll follow your orders. Can you do that?"

Lin Hai said to Xiao Ce with great certainty, "Your Highness... there's definitely no problem... you can rest assured. While you were away, my naval exercises continued... and, at your suggestion and the suggestion of the Tianji Pavilion... our ships were conducting live-fire exercises... simulating real naval battles."

After hearing Lin Hai's words, Xiao Ce immediately became very interested: "Oh? The suggestion from the Heavenly Mystery Pavilion?"

Seeing that Xiao Ce was interested, Lin Hai quickly said, "That's right, Your Highness, it's a suggestion from the Heavenly Mystery Pavilion."

Lin Hai began to explain that, in fact, the busiest place for them during this period was Tianji Pavilion.

Because Brian Carter had previously brought in many foreign experts, and these people were trained...

Their Tianji Pavilion's technology has seen explosive growth.

Although they are technologically advanced, the people of Xiao still have their own advantages.

That is intelligence.

In particular, the people in the Tianji Pavilion of the Xiao Kingdom are the most intelligent people in the entire Xiao Kingdom.

These intelligent people gathered here, and after being given a pointer, they suddenly understood everything.

Moreover, the popular science materials on mathematics, physics, and chemistry that Xiao Ce provided for junior and senior high school students laid a solid foundation for their studies.

Therefore, they quickly made groundbreaking progress in various technological fields.

Including in shipbuilding, in terms of technology, they have been able to replicate second-generation Western warships.

This warship is not much different from the mainstream Western warships of today, and has even been improved and optimized in many ways.

In terms of combat performance, although they were imitations of second-generation warships, they underwent continuous tuning and refinement.

Their capabilities have surpassed those of mainstream Western warships.

The people of Tianji Pavilion have always had the navy, which is located near the sea, conduct the tests, and these tests are conducted according to the wishes of the people of Tianji Pavilion.

That means we must engage in real combat, not just empty talk.

Therefore, during testing, they almost always operate at the limits.

...

As Xiao Ce listened to Lin Hai's animated speech, and noticed that Lin Hai's back straightened up slightly as he spoke, Xiao Ce noticed that Lin Hai was speaking with great enthusiasm.

A hint of pride flashed across his face unintentionally.

Xiao Ce was also surprised...

He had expected the Heavenly Mystery Pavilion to make great progress, but he hadn't anticipated this level of progress...

Xiao Ce was well aware that national pride stemmed from two sources: cultural confidence and military confidence.

Although Xiao Ce believed that both were equally important, he thought the latter was more important.

After all, this world, in principle, is still a world where the strong prey on the weak...

With tears welling in his eyes, Lin Hai said to Xiao Ce, "Your Highness, thank you... thank you..."

Looking at Lin Hai's expression, Xiao Ce was both amused and exasperated: "What are you thanking me for? What do I have to thank you for?"

After listening to Xiao Ce's words, Lin Hai said, "If it weren't for you, we would all be prey to others. But you founded the Heavenly Mystery Pavilion, allowing our technology to develop... Even if these Japanese invaders invaded our side, we would be able to face them calmly..."

"When they came in, they were nothing more than fish on the chopping block in our eyes... Your Highness, we lived through the era of Tojo Shōki... Those days were too bitter... too bitter..."

After listening to Lin Hai's words, Xiao Ce smiled and patted him on the shoulder: "Alright! You don't need to thank me... you should thank yourselves more... thank our hardworking people. If it weren't for the united efforts and beliefs of everyone... how could so much have changed in such a short time?"

Lin Hai nodded to Xiao Ce: "Actually, your Northern Desert Royal Palace and the two territories in the Western Regions have contributed a lot to the reforms in our Central Plains... Without them, we wouldn't have been able to develop so smoothly!!!"