Chapter 020: Peace Talks

The next day, Count Christopher personally took Du Fan to meet with the peace envoy from the Lani Empire.
The location chosen was the imperial family’s estate. Although it was an informal setting, it showed how seriously Prince Fischer took these peace talks.
On the Gaven Empire’s side, the envoys were naturally Du Fan and Count Christopher. As expected, the Lani Empire’s envoys were Prince Quested and Fifth Prince Leopold.
Leopold and Prince Quested clearly did not get along; after sitting down separately, they maintained a certain distance from each other, and their guards also stood apart. If not for the inappropriate setting, they might have already started fighting.
Leopold apparently didn’t know that Du Fan was also an envoy. Seeing Du Fan sitting there smiling, he couldn’t help but flinch.
He still remembered vividly the battle he had fought with Du Fan earlier.
Yet, despite this, the Lani Empire was still the victorious side. Though the two envoys didn’t get along, they agreed on matters of national interest.
From the start, they made outrageous demands: the Gaven Empire should disband its southern armies immediately, hand over the southern plains to the Lani Empire’s control, pay tens of millions in war reparations, and even send several members of the royal family as hostages.
Du Fan wasn’t angry. He had expected such demands from the Lani Empire. He didn’t bother to speak and let Count Christopher, the old fox, handle things. After wasting an entire morning, no agreements were reached.
After talking all morning, both Prince Quested and Prince Leopold looked frustrated. But since Du Fan had already intimidated Prince Quested the previous day, and Prince Leopold had been defeated by him, they lacked the confidence to get angry.
After a short lunch break, it was Du Fan’s turn. He wasn’t polite at all. In response to their exorbitant demands, he simply refused to comply. He didn’t mention reparations or hostages at all. Instead, he demanded that the Lani Empire withdraw from the southern plains and generously agreed that he wouldn’t pursue them if they pulled back their troops.

Seeing Du Fan’s arrogance, an officer from the Lanni Empire finally couldn’t hold back and drew his sword to challenge Du Fan. Du Fan didn’t hesitate either—he kicked the officer into disability before sneering at Prince Quested and Prince Leoport. “Let’s be honest, Your Highnesses… You both know who I, Du Fan, am. To be truthful, I’ve never really supported peace talks… Besides, after becoming a duke, my fief was the Siluo Province in the southern plains. Prince Fischer promised me that I would become the special envoy for the south. As long as it’s territory I’ve conquered myself, it’ll be under my control… Hmph, you must understand what this means, right? Our Green family isn’t like those good-for-nothing Lionheart family members who only have a bunch of incompetent troops. If peace talks fail and our northern army marches south, you two surely know better than I do what the outcome will be.”

At this point, Du Fan changed his tone slightly and glanced at Leoport, saying calmly, “Your Highness, you’ve been here for so long, yet no peace talks have taken place. Princess Sha must be extremely angry, right? Meanwhile, your first prince has achieved great merits… Who do you think will benefit more in the end?”

After saying this, Du Fan ignored their reactions and simply sat down to drink tea.

He wasn’t so arrogant for no reason.

Leoport was a pro-peace faction, so he definitely wouldn’t let Prince Quested take credit for the peace talks. And Prince Quested certainly wouldn’t give up easily. With both sides fighting openly and secretly in such a situation, it only benefited Du Fan.

Moreover, if the first prince sent someone to negotiate peace, it meant the struggle for the throne in the Lanni Empire had reached a critical point. Du Fan doubted Leoport wouldn’t be worried.

Furthermore, Du Fan knew that although the Lanni Empire appeared strong on the surface, it certainly wouldn’t dare to advance any further. Not only was their morale low, but internal strife among their troops due to the competition between the two princes was likely chaotic.

In such a situation, the Lanni Empire wasn’t much better than the Gavin Empire—how could they continue fighting?

After all, the Gavin Empire was a defeated country and would surely suffer heavy losses under these circumstances.

By evening, the two sides had finally reached a much better understanding. Prince Fischer had no children, so the idea of sending a hostage was out of the question. As for territory, Du Fan refused to budge at all. When it became clear that Prince Quested would not yield, Du Fan brought up the wager from the previous day: if the Lani Empire agreed to give up all its land, everything else could be discussed. The wager stood.

Prince Quested’s expression changed frequently, but in the end he agreed. This time, however, he and Leopold both said in unison that while they could give up the land, the war reparations had to be doubled, and two of the three fortresses on the edge of the empire had to be given to the Lani Empire. In addition to paying 40 million gold coins in reparations, the Gavin Empire had to pay another 10 million gold coins to regain control of its southern territories.

Both Du Fan and Christopher knew this was likely the bottom line for the Lani Empire. The southern plains were flat and extremely difficult to defend; the empire had always relied on the three fortresses forming a defensive line.

The Lani Empire was in a similar situation—also made up of plains. They wanted those two fortresses not only to prepare for future attacks on Gavin but also to prevent Gavin from invading them. The Lani Empire understood that if they demanded all three fortresses, the Gavin Empire would never agree.

Du Fan initially wanted to regain all three fortresses to defend his future fiefdoms, but after some thought, he realized that those fortresses were always occupied by southern troops. The more he tried to take back, the more “nails” the Lionheart family might use against him in the future.

Count Christopher seemed to understand this as well. Instead of aiming to regain all three fortresses, he used his eloquence to persuade Prince Quested to allow them to take back just one fortress. Of the two fortresses the Lani Empire would give up, one could not be occupied by troops, while the Gavin Empire would add five million troops, effectively “buying back” part of it. From then on, both sides completely ceased hostilities, and the two nations became friends.

Although both sides knew this truce was nothing more than a joke, at that moment both nations needed an end to the fighting, so matters were left as they were.

They signed documents, one copy for each side, and after their representatives signed and sealed them, the matter was settled. From then on, there were only exchanges of documents between the two empires, tasks handled by specialized officials, leaving Christopher and Du Fan out of it.

After the peace talks were completed, Du Fan and Count Christopher were both supposed to go to the imperial palace to report to Prince Fischer. However, Count Christopher merely smiled and said he would handle dealing with the prince’s anger. Du Fan didn’t really want to see Prince Fischer either, so after hearing Count Christopher’s words, he didn’t hesitate. After watching Count Christopher leave, he slowly wandered through the capital. Fortunately, it was already night, and no one could recognize him in the darkness. As Du Fan walked slowly through the empire, observing the passersby around him, he realized the extent of his actions there over these days—it was beyond imagination, both in quantity and scale… When he crossed over, he never thought he would one day be able to manipulate everything in this empire at will. And now, it seemed that goal wasn’t far away. In his distraction, Du Fan didn’t notice a carriage following him. After some time, they arrived by a quiet square, where he heard a whisper behind him: “My lord, Duke, please stop!” Du Fan turned and saw a person dressed in splendid attire standing behind him, slightly bent over. Not far behind him was an exquisitely crafted carriage. Du Fan frowned, slightly impatient, and simply asked, “What is it?” The servant quickly replied in a low voice, “My master asks you to get in the carriage for a brief meeting.” Du Fan shook his head and said, “No, I don’t want to see anyone now. Tell your master to come to my residence.” Upon hearing this, the man suddenly smiled mysteriously and said, “My master says that during today’s negotiations, some things couldn’t be fully discussed. But today, my master has already given up something for your sake as a gesture of respect… Please, give my master some face too. It’s just a brief meeting in the carriage—nothing serious. If you’re afraid outsiders will find out, my master assures you that those reckless men following you have already been dealt with by his people.” Du Fan felt a slight stir in his heart; he had a vague idea of who it was. But why had they come to see him? Without further refusal, he nodded and walked toward the carriage. Book 28: Province of Siluo