Vientiane Throne of Civilization

Chapter 1726 The Kingdom of Smith's Plea for Help
Zhou Xu received the message from the Kingdom of Smith half a month later. Representatives from the Kingdom of Smith rushed to their Great Zhou to ask for their help.

Incidentally, they were also given an update on the snake people's intelligence.

[Is it a giant serpentine monster?]

Zhou Xu frowned slightly as he listened to the intelligence sent back from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

[However, to be able to so easily destroy the Smith Kingdom's defensive facilities deployed on the cliff, could that giant serpent be at the Vajra Realm level?]

It's hard to say. It was late at night, and the giant snake had the advantage of a sneak attack. Its enormous size also contributed to its effectiveness under certain conditions.

Ultimately, it comes down to a lack of intelligence.

The battle ended the moment the giant serpent appeared, leaving Zhou Xu uncertain about the situation.

Under this premise, the meaning of the Smith Kingdom is quite clear.

They hoped that the Great Zhou would send troops to support them and help them repel the invading snake people.

The representative of the Kingdom of Smith stated that once their Kingdom of Smith was destroyed by the Snake People's offensive, the Snake People would be able to directly threaten the northeastern border of the Great Zhou Dynasty by following their territory.

The battlefield will then shift to their Great Zhou territory, which is not a good thing for Great Zhou.

They then brought up their previous actions of complying with UN terms, responding to the call, and cooperating with them in the campaign against the Saint Laurent Empire.

Zhou Xu, upon hearing this part of the report, couldn't help but chuckle.

The past favors and debts had long been settled, but that wasn't the other party's purpose; they were reminding him of the UN treaty.

Come to think of it, the United Nations hasn't been dissolved yet...

The United Nations was originally formed by five countries, but now only two remain. By normal logic, the United Nations should have been defunct long ago.

But to be honest, no one has ever officially announced the dissolution of the United Nations.

In this situation, it wouldn't be wrong to say that the United Nations hasn't been dissolved yet.

Of course, none of this matters.

Even if the United Nations hadn't been dissolved, there's no rule that mandates military intervention. If you don't want to go, you can just find some excuse to decline.

The representatives of the Kingdom of Smith were clearly aware of this, so they ultimately promised to provide a large amount of resources as a token of their gratitude once the matter was resolved.

In this wave of efforts to secure support from the Great Zhou, the Kingdom of Smith has employed every conceivable tactic imaginable: reasoning, appealing to emotions, and enticing with benefits.

Zhou Xude admitted that the other party's analysis was reasonable to some extent.

For example, by placing the battlefield in the Kingdom of Smith, the impact on their own country could be largely avoided.

But conversely, they also lost their home advantage.

This choice was a double-edged sword, and Zhou Xu had already made his decision beforehand: to play a defensive game.

However, the benefits promised by the other party did make Zhou Xu slightly tempted.

The main problem is that in the past two years, their Great Zhou has faced financial difficulties due to internal development.

If they can acquire a large amount of resources in this wave, it can alleviate the financial pressure on their Great Zhou to some extent.

But with these resources alone, it's not quite enough to get him to send troops.

With this in mind, Zhou Xu immediately made a decision.

"Tell Kong Daqian to add another 100,000 healthy young adult slaves." Zhou Xu had always been very fond of the slaves from the Smith Kingdom.

It's not that he discovered many talented people there, but from the perspective of their Great Zhou Dynasty, the slaves of the Kingdom of Smith were excellent cheap labor.

Most importantly, the slaves had never had a good life, so they were very easily satisfied.

Under these circumstances, their long years of slavery had instilled in them a deep-seated servility, so they generally dared not cause trouble and mostly behaved themselves.

After serving as cheap labor for a few years, they can gradually be transformed into normal citizens of the Great Zhou. At that time, their sense of belonging to the Great Zhou will be stronger, and their loyalty can be easily increased.

Incidentally, the 100,000 young and middle-aged laborers will also save them a significant amount of government spending! It's a win-win situation.

At this point, some people might wonder, why not just swallow up the Smith Kingdom directly? Wouldn't that be more thorough?

But the problem is, it's too thorough!

Imagine the Kingdom of Smith as a company that's been ruined and is full of messes. If you just swallow the company, it's the same as taking over all those messes as well.

This is a troublesome matter for Zhou Xu right now.

Zhou Xu's current approach is essentially saying, "I only want your company's cheap labor and resources; you can keep the mess for yourself."

Of course, Zhou Xu didn't set this number too rigidly.

He only gave a figure that would satisfy him; what the final deal would be depended on Kong Daqian's performance.

Wouldn't it be even better if he could negotiate to 120,000 or even 150,000?
On the other hand, he could accept 90,000 or 80,000.

As long as the benefits are right, many things are easy to discuss. The problem is that there are no benefits to be had, but a whole host of trivial matters.

Kong Daqian was a shrewd old man, so he naturally understood Zhou Xu's meaning.

Thanks to the improved communication efficiency of the miniature communication cube, Kong Daqian had already understood Zhou Xu's meaning during the break.

Because their Great Zhou held an absolute dominant position in this matter, the subsequent negotiations were very easy for Kong Daqian.

The representative who came to negotiate with Da Zhou was sent by Zham, so this representative naturally agreed with Zham's ideas.

Given the need to allocate substantial resources, the demand for an additional 100,000 able-bodied young slaves is indeed an outrageous request.

But for the snake people, it's an even deeper pit.

Providing food to the snake people indefinitely would not be enough, let alone 100,000 slaves, and even more slaves would not be sufficient, and the snake people's problem would remain unresolved.

Considering this, paying out 100,000 slaves at once is not entirely unacceptable.

This led to a quick consensus between the two sides.

After the agreement was reached, Representative Smith rushed back to the Smith Kingdom as quickly as possible to inform the councilors of the news, which was hard to call good news.

After all, according to the Great Zhou's requirements, they were to take away the promised resources and slaves when the support troops arrived.

Simply put, we require full payment upfront; we do not accept deposits followed by the final payment.

This is undoubtedly a heavy blow to the Smith Kingdom at this stage.

On a more optimistic note, as long as the snake people problem is solved and they are given more time, the number of slaves can be restored, and resources can be gradually accumulated again.

After thinking about it this way, it's not such a big problem after all.

(End of this chapter)