Chapter 1332 – Big Fish Eats Small Fish
Facing this situation, Jack thought of a good method.
Just as the 9th month arrived, the Dawson Dynasty sent a secret envoy to Great Xia. Their goal was to discuss how to share and split up the Mayan Dynasty.
That's right, split.
Based on Jack's logic, since the three sides could not come together, they should follow the principle of the big fish eats the small fish. Great Xia and the Dawson Dynasty would split up the Mayan Dynasty before battling it out amongst themselves.
This was exactly like Silver Hand's style.
...
9th month, 2nd day, Imperial Capital.
After sending the Dawson Dynasty envoy away, Ouyang Shuo summoned Jiang Shang, Zhang Liang, and Du Ruhui.
"How do you think we should reply to the Dawson Dynasty's suggestion?" Ouyang Shuo asked.
The Dawson Dynasty's suggestion did not fit with Great Xia's America strategy, and it even went against it. Logically speaking, Ouyang Shuo should have rejected the proposal outright.
However, he did not. Instead, he gathered up the important ministers to solemnly for a discussion.
Just the summoning of the three core officials itself revealed Ouyang Shuo's thoughts on this particular matter.
Hence, when they heard his majesty's question, the three of them did not reply immediately. Instead, they thought about it in their minds. They could not go against the thoughts of the king, but they could not brainlessly follow him either.
They had to give the emperor some proper advice and opinions on this matter. Otherwise, it would seem like they as officials did not possess skill.
After a short while, Zhang Liang said, "Your majesty, I don't think their suggestion is in conflict with the Empire's America strategy."
"Please elaborate." Ouyang Shuo smiled.
"The Empire's America strategy can be summarized into two points. First, restrict the Dawson Dynasty so that it cannot expand in the world. Secondly, manage America well and increase our strength."
"That's right." Ouyang Shuo nodded.
Zhang Liang continued, "If we split the Mayan Dynasty with them, given the ability of the America warzone, they can replace the Mayan Dynasty and continue to restrict the Dawson Dynasty."
As the military representative, Du Ruhui was not as certain about that and said, "The America warzone needs to care about the entire America Governor-General House and cannot do as elder has suggested."
The America warzone had three legions corps under it, and the South America legion corps needed to defend the Amazon Province, the Brasilia Province, and the Uruguay Province; they could not be moved away.
The Tiger legion corps defended the Columbia Province, helping the Empire defend the Panama Canal. Unless it was an emergency, they could not be moved either. At most, they could move one to two legions.
The only one that could be used to go up against the Dawson Dynasty would be the North America legion corps.
With just one legion corps, how could they fight against the Dawson Dynasty? Not to mention restricting them, but even just maintaining peace and order would be difficult.
Based on Du Ruhui's words, he hoped for the Empire to maintain the current situation.
When Zhang Liang heard that, he smiled and explained, "If we relied on our strength in the open, we naturally cannot. However, you must not forget that the entire Empire stands behind the America warzone."
"Just this point alone is enough to make the Dawson Dynasty tremble."
Hearing those words, Jiang Shang and Du Ruhui exchanged glances and smiled, not disagreeing.
That was true, in this day and age, no matter which dynasty neighbored Great Xia, they would be afraid.
Zhang Liang continued, "If we can get the south of the Mayan Dynasty and directly rule it, it can help to open up ocean resources in the Caribbean. This would be a good development chance for the America Govenor-General House. The Empire can also make use of this chance to increase our interference in the Gulf of Mexico to get more benefits."
"I'm guessing that the Dawson Dynasty made this choice because they were forced to."
"Why?" Jiang Shang asked.
"To them, occupying the entire Mayan Dynasty aligns with their strategic interests; it would let them obtain the ability to challenge us. Seeing the war matters not proceeding well, dragging on is not a choice, which is why they chose the next best solution. To the Dawson Dynasty, making us interfere in Central America is also leading a wolf into the room." Zhang Liang said.
Ouyang Shuo nodded in agreement.
At this point, Ouyang Shuo looked at the three of them and revealed the answer to the puzzle, "There are two reasons behind why I'm interested in the Dawson Dynasty's suggestion."
"First, along with the Spain Dynasty being destroyed, the Ottoman Dynasty's position has greatly improved. Hence, our relationship with the Azure Badge will come to an end soon."
Jiang Shang and the others agreed.
Without talking about things that were too far away, Great Xia was working with Ashoka to attack the Gupta dynasty that was under Azure Badge. "There were no forever friends or forever enemies, only forever interests."
"Under such circumstances, there's a need to deal with the Mayan Dynasty, which is a ticking time bomb." Ouyang Shuo continued, "Secondly, after half a year of tug of war, their strength has been used up. If we add pressure to the frontlines without going in directly, as long as the Dawson Dynasty is willing to pay the price, they can still win."
"When that happens, what occurred in the Maple Dynasty might repeat again. Although we restricted the Dawson Dynasty to a certain extent, we did not get anything good out of it."
Before this, Great Xia had thrown in a legion corps of Mercenary troops, but they were unable to prevent the destruction of the Maple Dynasty.
Naturally, they did not obtain the military base that was promised.
On the contrary, although the Dawson Dynasty paid a heavy price, provided that they ran the Maple Dynasty well after occupying it, they would be able to recover their losses in a few years.
In the game world, at least at the current stage, the value and potential of land was huge.
It was even the most valuable thing.
In the Mayan battlefield, if Great Xia did not directly interfere and chose to help in the dark, the threat that the Dawson Dynasty posed to the America Governor-General House would rise to a new level once the Dawson Dynasty conquered the Mayan Dynasty.
Ouyang Shuo said, "Due to that, I think splitting the Mayan Dynasty with them and kicking away this chess piece of Azure Badge is the right thing to do at the moment."
"After listening to your analysis, I'm even more certain of my judgment." Ouyang Shuo added.
Zhang Liang's analysis had cleared up all the doubts in Ouyang Shuo's heart. The Strategy Saint was the Strategy Saint indeed. He was always able to see things at a higher level and could look directly at the crux of the problem.
"Your majesty is wise!"
The three ministers bowed; the questions in their hearts were answered.
Ouyang Shuo nodded before looking at Jiang Shang and instructing, "Since we all agree, the Cabinet will take the lead for the negotiations."
"Yes, my emperor!"
Jiang Shang merrily accepted this responsibility.
Although it was splitting, how to distribute and plan the matter involved a lot of detailed work.