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Right Minister Zhao Wenhan stood up amidst the heated discussion among the ministers and said, "Your Highness, even if the North Prince truly harbors the ambition to unify the several kingdoms, I believe we can still engage in temporary cooperation with him."

Normally, someone of Zhao Wenhan's stature should not make an appearance in the East Palace, after all, he was the Prime Minister. For a Prime Minister to publicly lean towards the Crown Prince would be tantamount to completely undermining the Sum Emperor.

However, in their eyes, the Sum Emperor was already on his last legs, without any solution even from the old ancestors of Fixed Wind Mountain and Four Directions Mountain. It was only a matter of time before Lu Yi would ascend to the throne, so Zhao Wenhan was not afraid of the Sum Emperor punishing him.

After hearing Zhao Wenhan's words, Lu Yi curiously asked, "What do you mean by that, Zhao?"

Zhao Wenhan replied, "Has Your Highness ever considered why, despite North Country easily defeating Great Wu and possessing the strength to annihilate it, they ended up signing an alliance with Great Wu instead?"

"North Country could have taken advantage of the situation to pursue their victory and completely wipe out the Great Wu dynasty, but they chose not to do so."

Upon hearing Zhao Wenhan's words, the ministers in the hall fell into deep thought, and soon one of them said, "Perhaps it's because North Country is not yet prepared?"

Zhao Wenhan immediately said, "You're right. North Country indeed is not ready."

"Conquering realms might be easy, but sitting on a throne is difficult. With North Country's strength, plus their mysterious weapons, destroying the Great Wu dynasty might not be too difficult."

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"But what about after annihilating the Great Wu dynasty? Can the North Prince truly manage the entire Great Wu dynasty effectively? Not necessarily."

"Moreover, considering the current comprehensive power of North Country, it would be very difficult to annihilate all the major kingdoms. The Martial Emperor and the North Prince are very similar, both possessing great ambition."

"Ever since the Martial Emperor came to power, he has led Great Wu in constant warfare, expanding the territory through battles from the south to the north. It may seem that Great Wu's territorial size has increased, but its internal contradictions have also grown, with uprisings in the southeastern regions being the best example."

"If North Country neglects its governance capabilities, even if they were to occupy the entire Great Wu dynasty, the remnants of Great Wu would find ways to create chaos for North Country."

"The most crucial point is if North Country did occupy the Great Wu dynasty, would they need to recruit soldiers from the previously controlled Great Wu territories?"

"If North Country conscripts from the territories once controlled by Great Wu, then there's a high likelihood that their mysterious weapons would fall into the hands of the Great Wu remnants."

"Once North Country's internal governance faces problems, those Great Wu remnants would use North Country's own weapons to strike back at them, leading to North Country's inevitable collapse."

After listening to Zhao Wenhan's analysis, all the ministers in the hall fell silent, and Lu Yi did not speak either, mentally digesting Zhao Wenhan's discourse.

A while later, Lu Yi finally asked, "Then, according to Zhao, what do you think North Country's next move will be?"

Zhao Wenhan said, "What the North Prince needs most to unify the kingdoms is time—not the time to obliterate each dynasty, but the time to transform the populations of the other kingdoms into the citizens of North Country."

"Now that North Country has occupied two counties of Great Wu, the governance of these two counties will take up a considerable amount of time, so I believe North Country will not make any significant moves for the time being."

"We can take this opportunity to send envoys to negotiate with the North Prince. On one hand, we would cede the lands north of Qi Country to North Country, increasing their time spent in governance. On the other hand, we'll tell North Country that Great Sum will fully support them in the future—whatever North Country needs, Great Sum will provide."

This...

Hearing Zhao Wenhan's words, the ministers were somewhat stunned. If Great Sum provided whatever North Country needed, wouldn't Great Sum essentially become a vassal state to North Country? How could this be acceptable?

Just as Lu Yi was about to say something, Zhao Wenhan continued, "My proposal is primarily aimed at stabilizing the North Prince, to deter any thoughts he might have of moving southward."

"Think about it, Your Highness. If the North Prince were to move south, he would inevitably clash with the various Aristocratic Families and landlords, and he would spend a considerable amount of time managing the resulting mess."

"If Your Highness were to pretend to be a puppet for the North Prince, assisting him in managing the entirety of Great Sum, not only providing North Country with what it needs to develop, the North Prince would temporarily avoid direct conflict with the major landlords and Aristocratic Families. It's very likely he would agree to such a proposal."

"If Your Highness continues to show a weak stance towards North Country, then in the eyes of the North Prince, Great Sum won't pose any threat, and he won't need to directly deal with the major landlords and Aristocratic Families for the time being, as Your Highness would be managing things for him."

Upon hearing this, someone realized the loophole in Zhao Wenhan's suggestion, and at that moment, Lu Yi asked, "Zhao, if the North Prince truly has the ambition to conquer the entire world, then from his perspective, Great Sum would also be within his grasp, and he would eventually mobilize troops to move south."

Zhao Wenhan said, "I understand. My intention is to distract the North Prince's targets as much as possible, to make Great Sum seem nonthreatening to North Country, able to continuously provide benefits, and ideally to give the North Prince the illusion that he could claim all of Great Sum without waging war."

"Your Highness, if Great Sum were to be utterly subservient to North Country, wouldn't the North Prince think that as long as Great Sum provided the resources needed for North Country's development, and given how weak Great Sum is, if North Country were to conquer the other kingdoms, wouldn't Great Sum surrender without a fight?

This way, North Country wouldn't need to deploy troops against Great Sum."