Taishi Ankang gazed at Wang Shouzhe gloomily.
Yet Wang Shouzhe neither blushed nor skipped a beat, remaining as calm and composed as ever.
"Why must it come to this? Why must it come to this?" Taishi Ankang said helplessly. "The War of the Imperial Sons reaches far too widely. Can't I just quietly wait until I 'retire and return home'?"
"Difficult." Wang Shouzhe spoke frankly. "Great Qian has only seven prefectures in total. Every Quasi-Imperial Son wants the support of each prefecture's powers to bolster his prestige."
"To Prince Kang, Longzuo Prefecture is already fallen territory—a die-hard support base for Prince An. The Prefect himself is quite close to the Wang Clan and Qian Clan as well, supporting and helping them time and again. Let alone raising the banner of neutrality—if you openly declared that you were joining Prince Kang, do you think Prince Kang would believe you? Would he accept you?"
"If you sit and wait for Prince Kang to ascend, then with that petty temperament of his, inherited straight from His Majesty, the Prefect and your 'ordinary' military lineage will certainly be among the first to be suppressed and pushed to the margins." As Wang Shouzhe poured him spirit tea, he analyzed the situation. "Prince An, on the other hand, is broad-minded, kind, and generous. Even if he ascends, he will not deliberately make things difficult for a neutral Prefect. But you cannot keep picking on an honest man like Prince An, can you?"
"Unless you retire into seclusion right now, hand over a plum post like the head of a prefecture to someone else, and henceforth stop involving yourself in worldly affairs. Otherwise, amid the surging tide of change sweeping the world, how many people can escape the whirlpool of the War of the Imperial Sons? At