"All right, enough praise. Let's discuss something serious!" the Empress Dowager said.
The emperor turned his gaze toward her.
The Empress Dowager held a secret report. "Zhong Youyan sent this back from Southern Mei. With our assistance, the Eldest Princess has successfully rebelled and seized the throne."
"That's wonderful! Does that mean Southern Mei will become a vassal state of Great Xia?" The thought made the emperor beam with delight.
Yet he saw that his mother's face was clouded with sorrow.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
"Southern Yue had been drilling its troops, intending to attack Southern Mei. Now that the Eldest Princess has seized the throne, her first battle will be against Southern Yue. She hopes we will dispatch the troops stationed in the south to help her repel them."
"To demonstrate her sincerity, she has even sent over the documents declaring Southern Mei a vassal state. Perhaps she truly wants nothing more than to preserve her country."
The Empress Dowager took the already stamped documents out of the letter. They would take effect as soon as Great Xia agreed and affixed its imperial seal.
"It isn't that I don't wish to lend her troops. But since ancient times, an army has needed a just cause to march. If we declare that Southern Mei willingly became our vassal before we agreed to help, how will the Eldest Princess face the world afterward?"
She was considering how the Eldest Princess would maintain her hold on power in the future.
People would say the Eldest Princess fawned on the powerful, even offering up her country to curry favor with Great Xia. How could she win the people's hearts after that?
Thus, if Great Xia sent its southern troops against Southern Yue, it would have to act independently, without any connection to Southern