In the great hall, Dongyi presented the peace treaty with Yan that had just been hastily discussed with the Seventh Prince. Surprisingly, they first gave it to Bai Qingyan for review before having someone pass the treaty to Xiao Rongyan.

Xiao Rongyan stared at the treaty for a long while before reaching out to accept it. Before he even looked at it, laughter emerged from behind his mask: “The Dongyi Seventh Prince is indeed loyal and righteous. The Great Zhou Emperor supports the Seventh Prince’s ascension to the throne, and Dongyi even has the Great Zhou Emperor review their treaty with Yan first.”

Bai Qingyan’s eyes carried a smile: “The Regent Prince is thinking wrongly. Before the Regent Prince arrived, the Dongyi court officials and the Seventh Prince had discussed a peace treaty with Yan. I took the liberty of glancing at it and felt it treated Yan poorly, so I suggested adding more. But if we added more… following the compensation agreement previously established between our Great Zhou and Dongyi, Dongyi would be left with a tremendous mess! The common people would be the ones to suffer! The people are innocent!”

Speaking thus, Bai Qingyan looked at Xiao Rongyan again: “The Regent Prince knows that I… cannot bear to see the people suffer. That’s why initially, even though I could easily have destroyed Yan, I still agreed to Yan’s wager. Therefore… I reduced some of what Dongyi was to compensate our Great Zhou, and had Dongyi compensate Yan instead. Only then did the Dongyi Seventh Prince ask me to review it.”

“In that case, this prince must thank the Great Zhou Emperor!” Xiao Rongyan nodded toward Bai Qingyan.

“Yan sent troops to bolster our Great Zhou’s prestige, so how could Great Zhou let Yan labor in vain?” The smile in Bai Qingyan’s eyes deepened.

Xiao Rongyan understood the meaning behind Bai Qingyan’s words. Now Dongyi was under Great Zhou’s protection… with Great Zhou’s shield, advising their Yan to quit while ahead.

Bai Qingyan had already said these words to the Dongyi court officials when reviewing Dongyi’s peace treaty with Yan. The Great Zhou sacrificed its interests… equivalent to protecting Dongyi in front of Yan. How could the Dongyi court officials not be pleased?

They were so pleased they didn’t even hold grudges about the Great Zhou Emperor attacking Dongyi, since it was the Dongyi Second Prince who had provoked first, killing the Prince of Hancheng and wanting to chop up Prince Hancheng’s corpse to feed to dogs.

Now that the Great Zhou Emperor could send the Seventh Prince back and was willing to sacrifice his interests to help Dongyi stabilize relations with Yan, it was quite good.

The Dongyi Empress sat with her hands folded on her lap, gripping her handkerchief tightly.

Xiao Rongyan unfolded the peace treaty and glanced at it. The compensation listed wasn’t much, but it was acceptable.

“Since the Great Zhou Emperor has already reviewed it, naturally, there are no problems!” Xiao Rongyan’s voice carried laughter as he had Yue Shi present the alliance treaty for the Dongyi Empress and Dongyi Emperor to review. “This is a treaty for eternal friendship between our two nations. After the Seventh Prince’s coronation and the treaty is signed, our Yan should withdraw troops and return home!”

“We must also pay tribute to Yan? And allow Yan to station troops in Dongyi?” The Dongyi Empress looked up, her eyes full of disbelief.

Xiao Rongyan nodded impassively. The treaty requiring Dongyi to pay tribute… was something Xiao Rongyan had rewritten after guessing that Bai Qingyan might have substituted someone who could be controlled by the Great Zhou as Dongyi’s emperor.

It wasn’t that Xiao Rongyan necessarily wanted Dongyi to pay tribute and become a vassal to Yan… but stationing troops in Dongyi was non-negotiable, as this was the only way to prevent Dongyi from potentially causing trouble.

Proposing tribute and vassalage was merely to create room for retreat, making it easier for Dongyi to accept the troop stationing.

“How can this be? We’ve already become vassals to the Great Zhou!”

“Exactly, this… where is there precedent for paying tribute to two nations!”

The Dongyi court officials discussed among themselves. The person beside Xiao Rongyan, who was fluent in the Dongyi language, bent down to whisper in Xiao Rongyan’s ear, but Xiao Rongyan raised his hand to stop him. The man immediately retreated and stood with Yue Shi.

“There’s no choice! Look, Great Zhou treated Dongyi quite well before, yet Dongyi’s navy killed Great Zhou’s Prince of Hancheng and so many Great Zhou naval forces in one battle. Our Yan is not like Great Zhou… able to support a large army to destroy Dongyi in a fit of anger!” Xiao Rongyan spoke in Dongyi language, his voice composed, truly surprising everyone. “Our Yan also cherishes our soldiers’ lives. With the Great Zhou’s precedent before us, naturally, we must take precautions!”

“Those were things done by that traitorous Second Prince. Now the Second Prince has been executed, and our Seventh Prince ascends the throne. Yan’s conditions are too excessive! Our Dongyi has already submitted to the Great Zhou… we absolutely cannot become vassals to Yan as well! Impossible!” A Dongyi court official’s voice was high and agitated, trembling with anger.

“What does the new Dongyi Emperor think?” Xiao Rongyan turned to look at the masked Dongyi Seventh Prince sitting on the emperor’s throne, casually changing his form of address.

Tuoba Yao turned to look at Xiao Rongyan and spoke slowly: “Dongyi has already become a vassal to Great Zhou, so naturally, we’re under Great Zhou’s protection. This unreasonable demand from the Yan Regent Prince—even Great Zhou His Majesty wouldn’t agree to it. Moreover… The Great Zhou and Yan are currently engaged in their wager. Whether Dongyi becomes a vassal to Yan today makes no difference. When the wager ends and Great Zhou and Yan become one nation, Dongyi will naturally remain a vassal state.”

Tuoba Yao withdrew his gaze from Xiao Rongyan, looked straight ahead at the court officials standing below the high platform, and continued: “If our Dongyi doesn’t become a vassal state, so be it. But if we do… We’ll only be vassals to the strongest nation.”

Tuoba Yao’s words made it impossible to tell whether he hoped Great Zhou or Yan would win the wager, yet his words were reasonable and seemed to carry a hint of sowing discord between Great Zhou and Yan. This greatly heartened the Dongyi court officials, who hadn’t expected their young emperor to be a soft persimmon that anyone could squeeze.

The Dongyi court officials looked at their new emperor sitting beside Bai Qingyan, speaking calmly, as if seeing hope for Dongyi’s future.

Their Seventh Prince was more emperor-like than these court officials had imagined.

“Exactly! If our Dongyi doesn’t become a vassal state, so be it. But if we do, we’ll be vassals only to the strongest nation! If the Yan Regent Prince wants our Dongyi to become a vassal state, then please wait until after winning the wager. Our Dongyi will certainly submit respectfully then!”

“Right! Currently, the Great Zhou is the strongest nation, so our Dongyi is willing to be the Great Zhou’s vassal state, but… Yan’s strength or weakness remains to be seen three years hence.”

The Dongyi Empress smiled slightly at Xiao Rongyan and asked: “Regent Prince, you’ve heard what our Dongyi’s new emperor and court officials have said, haven’t you?”

Xiao Rongyan pondered for a moment and said, “This prince is not unreasonable. What the new Dongyi Emperor and court officials have said, upon reflection, does have some merit.”

Bai Qingyan, sitting in the center, adjusted her posture and looked toward Xiao Rongyan…