818, Trumpeting Failure
"Is it possible that this war should never have happened in the first place?"
Tang Xiao speared a piece of some unknown but exceptionally delicious dried meat with his fork, dipped it in a carefully prepared sauce, and put it into his mouth.
The maid at his side hurriedly bowed and used a pristine white silk handkerchief to wipe the stain from the corner of his mouth.
"Hehehe... That question hardly befits the wisdom and decisiveness you have shown all along." A deep, powerful voice laughed from the other side of the dining table. "The causes of this war were planted thousands of years ago. We merely followed the tide."
His beard and hair were snow-white, yet he was vigorous and commanding without needing to show anger.
Count Dooku, leader of the Separatists, supreme head of the Confederacy of Independent Systems, instigator of the war, and the second most powerful man in the entire Milky Way Galaxy.
Tang Xiao smiled, continuing to cut the dried meat in his hand as he said casually, "Every time I hear you speak of that omnipotent, incomparably powerful Darth Sidious, I find myself wondering whether this war would still have erupted without Darth Sidious."
"Oh? What makes you say that?" Count Dooku asked with a hint of interest.
Tang Xiao ate another piece of meat, waved off the maid's service, and said, "With your vast knowledge, I'm sure you know that back in the Cold Weapon Era of our intelligent civilizations, oppressed and exploited people dared to rise against their rulers with nothing more than bamboo poles—oh, a kind of tree branch. On our planet, we called it 'rising up with poles.'"
"That's right. A chaotic, barbaric era, yet one full of romanticism." Count Dooku smiled faintly.
"But after entering the