Chapter 636: The Alliance

"Steven, this is a mutiny. If you return to Folangji, you will be hanged," Fei Wen scolded angrily.

He returned to the city of Ma'erka, and Steven came to his office to demand how to handle the incident of the merchant ship being attacked.

When he proposed interrogating the crew members who survived the attack, Steven arrested him.

"You seem to have forgotten that once the Governor does something detrimental to the interests of Ma'erka, as the highest commander of Ma'erka, I have the right to temporarily replace the Governor and exercise power."

"Nonsense, you are pushing Ma'erka toward destruction," Fei Wen shouted. "We Folangji are not people who cannot afford to provoke this Yan Wang of Great Song."

"You really are a weak and incompetent person, actually fearing the natives of the East. You have simply disgraced us white people."

Pointing in the direction of Great Song, he had a sinister expression: "Do not forget, we Folangji now belong to the Holy Alliance along with Ross, Hansi Country, and Shenluo Country, while the four-nation alliance of Britain, Frank, Stedan, and others is currently formulating a plan to partition Great Song."

"As the pioneers of the Holy Alliance in the East, how can we submit to the natives of the East? Only by cooperating with Dongying and colonizing Great Song is the only correct way out, and it is also an opportunity for Folangji to become strong again."

After speaking, he waved his hand, no longer paying attention to Fei Wen's reprimands, and had the soldiers take Fei Wen to the prison.

Lu City.

As Dong An headed south, the alliance of the seven influential clans was about to be held here.

On this day, with the arrival of the Crown Prince of Nanping, Fan Qing, the representatives of the seven influential clans had all arrived.

Only, unlike the confidence they once had, Han Zheng now could not muster much spirit for the alliance.

Ten days ago, as a spy for Qi in Yancheng brought back a blueprint, he felt as if he had been struck by lightning.

This blueprint was none other than a manufacturing blueprint for a flintlock.

On it was the manufacturing process of the flintlock, the dimensions and structure of every part, and it even explained what flint was, as well as the key structural spring steel for manufacturing the firing mechanism.

At first, he thought this blueprint was fake, but when he handed this blueprint to Sato Masahisa, from the shocked expression on Sato Masahisa's face, he realized that something major had happened.

If he had obtained this blueprint before, he would surely have been ecstatic.

But now, he could not be happy at all.

It was obvious that the thing he, Qi, was using as a bargaining chip for the alliance had now likely become known to everyone.

The Qi spy reported that when he was seizing the blueprint, there were others seizing the blueprint as well.

And the two blueprints he brought back were exactly the same.

This indicated that the blueprints others obtained should also be the same.

Therefore, this meant that other influential clans had also obtained the flintlock blueprints.

In this way, how could his Qi still make other influential clans follow his lead?

However, since the seven influential clans had gathered together again, he could only bite the bullet and hold the alliance.

He only hoped that there would be influential clans whose interests aligned with Qi, and who would stand firmly with them to deal with Yan Wang.

The next day.

The alliance was officially held in the Qianyang Hall of the Qi Imperial Palace.

Xie Duan representing the Xie Family, Liang Feng representing Wu, Dou Wei representing Southern Liang, and Fan Qing representing Nanping arrived at the palace one after another and took their seats in succession.

Before long, Han Zheng and Wang Zi'an entered the Qianyang Hall.

Seeing many familiar faces, Han Zheng revealed a smile. Fan Xinglun and Liang Kai—the former was the Emperor of Nanping and the latter was the Emperor of Wu—naturally could not come, but sending the Crown Princes was the same.

As for Xie Duan and Dou Wei, they were the actual controllers of Southern Liang and the Xie Family, capable of making decisions for their emperors in this alliance.

"Hahaha, it has truly been a long time." Sitting in the main seat, Han Zheng's expression was slightly smug; in the past, this position was always Dou Wei's.

Sitting here made him feel that Qi had suddenly become the head of all nations.

Seeing Han Zheng enter, Dou Wei and the others all stood up to pay their respects.

Although their status was the same in the past, it was different now.

After all, they had mutually recognized the countries established by each other.

Then they should respect each other's emperor.

Han Zheng was currently the Emperor of Qi, so his status was higher than theirs.

"It has indeed been quite some time. It is truly gratifying that our seven influential clans can reunite here today." After sitting down, Dou Wei spoke first.

He was very proactive about this alliance.

He had received news that the Ma Family in Sizhou was replacing their weapons with Yan Wang's new-style firearms, and that generals from Yanzhou had arrived in Sizhou to train and take over the Ma Family Army.

This proved that the Ma Family, once one of the Eight Great Influential Clans, had completely degenerated into Yan Wang's lackeys.

And the Ma Family was currently training troops, which made him very uneasy.

He guessed that Yan Wang might be about to make a move on Qinzhou and Yongzhou.

If so, he feared the connection between the Northern Di and his Southern Liang would be cut off.

The Northern Di cavalry would be unable to enter Wuguan safely to help his Southern Liang expand its territory, and their Dong Shi with the Northern Di would also be affected.

Regarding this, both his Southern Liang and the Northern Di were somewhat anxious.

The Northern Di had suffered heavy losses and were unwilling to take up arms again for these two provinces; they only wanted to recuperate and rebuild their strength.

This was equivalent to forcing his Southern Liang to face the Ma Family, who were equipped with new-style firearms, all alone.

He was naturally unhappy about this.

Therefore, he urgently wanted to divert the disaster, or at least not let his Southern Liang face Yan Wang alone.

So, even though he had obtained the flintlock blueprints a few days ago, he still came.

Of course, this did not mean the blueprints were useless; in his view, it was because he no longer had to be constrained by Qi regarding flintlocks.

This time, he could have more say in the matter of opposing Yan Wang.

"His Majesty is also looking more spirited than ever," Xie An said, standing up at this moment.

He did not look at Dou Wei, after all, the Jinling incident was created by Dou Wei.

And he had always regarded Jinling as the Xie Family's exclusive domain.

Dou Wei plundered Jinling, and he could not forgive that.

Therefore, he could not be bothered to pay attention to Dou Wei.

At present, he only wished to pass the alliance meeting of Qi, and was unwilling to engage in direct dialogue with Dou Wei.

After Xie An, Liang Feng and Fan Qing also complimented Han Zheng one after another.

However, the two of them had looked indifferent since entering the great hall, as if they were not very interested in the alliance meeting.

Especially Fan Qing, who was almost dozing off.

Although Han Zheng wore a grinning expression, he had generally figured out the intentions of the powerful clans.

I fear that for now, he can only unite the Xie Family and Southern Liang.

"It is not too bad yet," Han Zheng thought to himself.

The grain of the world comes from the Xie Family; with the Xie Family's assistance, there would be no problem with provisions.

And the Cavalry of Southern Liang is the strongest among all the houses, making up for the shortcomings of Qi.

With the three houses combined, they have infantry, Cavalry, and provisions, and their territories are connected, which is just right for responding to Yan Wang in time.

However, he was not prepared to give up on Wu and Nanping either, so he spoke directly: "This alliance meeting is for the purpose of discussing the crusade against Yan Wang; I wonder what high opinions Wu and Nanping might have?"

Liang Feng had already thought of a countermeasure before coming.

Before coming to Lu City, his Wu had also obtained the blueprints for the Flintlock.

Originally, his Imperial Father was not very enthusiastic about this matter, but was instead focused on guarding against the British.

Now that they had mastered the Flintlock craftsmanship, they could not be bothered to pay attention to it.

However, having signed the contract, their Wu would have to make a gesture after all.

So he said, "My Imperial Father has instructed that if we are to crusade against Yan Wang, my Wu is willing to provide fifty thousand troops."