Chapter 264: Negotiations with Xi Yuan Si

"No need for formalities. After all, a stable Japan serves everyone's interests," Chen Feng's voice showed no emotion, "Your Excellency Xi Yuan Si, you have made the right choice. History will remember this day—not as a day of Japan's humiliation, but as a day of Japan's fresh start."

After the call ended, Xi Yuan Si stood there for a long while. Outside, the snow fell heavier and heavier, turning Tokyo completely white.

He recalled forty years ago, when the Meiji Restoration had just begun, on a similarly snowy day. Back then they had nothing but youthful zeal and hopes for the future. Forty years later, they seemed to have everything, yet it also felt as if they had nothing.

"A fresh start…" Xi Yuan Si muttered to himself, a bitter smile flickering at the corner of his mouth, "One can only hope."

He sat back at his desk, opened a drawer, and took out a well‑worn notebook. On the title page was the motto he had written in his youth: "When you reach the end of the water, sit and watch the clouds rise."

Now the water is exhausted; when will the clouds rise?

Xi Yuan Si Gongwang did not know the answer. He only knew that, regardless, they had to keep moving forward. For the empire he had witnessed being born and then decline, for the eighty million citizens, and for those young people about to go to Europe who might never return.

He turned to a fresh page and began drafting a memorial to the Heaven Locust. The sound of the pen tip scratching the paper echoed distinctly and heavily in the silent office.

Meanwhile, thousands of miles away in Dubai, Chen Feng hung up the phone, turned to Wang Wenwu and Zhou Tieshan, and said, "Japan agreed."

Wang Wenwu let out a long sigh, "That fast? I thought it would take at least three days of arguing."

"Hunger is the best lobbyist," Chen Feng said, walking to the world map and dragging his finger from Japan toward Europe, "Notify the Deguo side that they can begin preparing to receive the first batch of troops. Also, have our fleet ready—to transport two hundred thousand people and their equipment; this will be the largest Scale sea‑borne force deployment in history."

"About the commission…" Zhou Tieshan asked.

"We'll take 10%, but the first year it can be halved," Chen Feng said, "We need to give Japan a little sweetener so they see hope. Desperate people will fight tooth and nail; only those with hope will cooperate."

He paused, then added, "Also, inform our intelligence network in Europe to closely monitor the movements of these Japanese units. They are fighting for money now, but after the war? What changes will the veterans who have seen the world and fought modern wars bring back to Japan?"

Wang Wenwu and Zhou Tieshan exchanged a glance, each seeing the deeper meaning in the other's eyes.

"You are planting a seed," Wang Wenwu said.

"Every empire has a lifespan," Chen Feng looked toward the shimmering Persian Gulf outside the window, "Lanfang is no exception. All we can do is extend its lifespan a bit, delay its decline. To achieve that we need balance—our neighbors must be neither so strong as to threaten us nor so weak as to cause chaos."

But the nation must go on. The people still need to eat. One hundred thousand youths—whether they belong to the army or the navy—must survive.

Dao Tian placed the letter into an envelope, sealed it with wax, and called his trusted aide: "Deliver it to Tokyo, hand it personally to Count Teng Yuan, and it must not pass through any intermediary."

"Understood."

After the aide left, Dao Tian glanced at the clock—10 a. m. There were still four hours until the afternoon meeting with Chen Feng.

He decided to visit the port again—not as a navy admiral, but as an elder about to send young people off to distant lands.