Surrounded by a wolf-like neighbor and unhappy memories of being occupied by Ostoria, Seres was forced to consolidate his military power while pursuing "equidistance diplomacy" to ensure the survival of the country. As a result, the Holy See has the unspeakable Serres Guard, and as long as you give money, whether it is Charlemagne or Ostoria or even the United Rus' Duchy, the Serres mercenaries will give you your life - as long as the opposite side is not from their hometown (the Serres will implement the principle of "the Serres do not fight the Serres" when they meet on the battlefield). At the same time, Ceres's money bank began to absorb the salaries sent back to their hometown by the mercenaries and all kinds of shady secret funds from all parties, whether you are a prince or a thief, whether the money remitted to the bank is legal or not from the right source, as long as you can afford to pay the handling fee, any kind of money can help you handle it flawlessly and cleanly.

Relying on various routines in the open and covert, Serres has become the most successful neutral country to date, with per capita GDP, life expectancy, and life happiness index ranking among the top in the world. For a while, it almost became a priority destination country for immigration, and it can be called the roundest foreign moon in the hearts of people of all countries.

Until the rise of the consortium.

As a supertrust, the consortium operates with the goal of achieving a monopoly in all areas, which inevitably clashes with Serres. In the early stages of development, the Consortium's stealthy forces and the Théres killers were engaged in a daily life-and-death struggle, and sacks full of broken corpses were found every day in the cities where the merchants and branches of the Consortium were located, and it was a pleasure to kill them on both sides. Later, he reached a cooperation intention with Prime Minister Richelieu, and after the official acquiescence, the consortium completely lost its scruples, so the love and killing turned into a unilateral massacre. The consortium sent out its private army (no one knew about the Defence Force at the time) disguised as underworld bandits, dropped Molotov cocktails or bombs directly into the shops of the merchants of Serres, and then surrounded the shops with gunmen and crossbowmen who shot at everyone who escaped. Coupled with the consortium's all-round attacks on supply channels and capital chains, the Serres businessmen were finally defeated and handed over their market share to the consortium.

With such a layer of evil, Seres can be regarded as one of the most reluctant forces among the countries to the rise of the Alfheim consortium, and their dislike of the elven camp is second only to Ymir. As a nation that started out on mercenaries and money, the Serres are well aware of the innate expansiveness and mobility of state monopoly capital, and with a strong standing army, such a neighbor is enough to make all Serres shudder to think about it. If this neighbor swallows Charlemagne and grows stronger, the Serres will simply be unable to sleep at night.

At that time, the Serres will surely lament like the small countries in the other world with strong neighbors, "Heaven is too far, XX is too close" (about XX, please substitute yourself for the three largest in the UN Security Council).

But if anyone thinks that Serres will strongly support Charlemagne and use Charlemagne to eliminate the nightmare of Alfheim, it is too underestimated to underestimate the vision of these interest animals.

Through the intelligence network built up by scattered banks and mercenaries, Serres knew Charlemagne as deeply as Alfheim. There may be a big gap in the accuracy of information and the level of access to confidentiality, but Seres has a very deep and clear understanding of the nature of Charlemagne's government and the development trend of this government.

- This is a country where muscles control the brain, and if you don't fight or plunder, you will die.

In a report on Charlemagne, Serres intelligence officials wrote in a very sharp tone.

The so-called militarist state is, to put it bluntly, a bandit organization on a national scale. All the resources, production, and personnel of the whole country serve the army, and the army acquires territory, resources, and population through foreign aggression and expansion, and maintains the operation of the war machine through such a cycle. Once this cycle is broken, the entire country will fall into incorrigible financial bankruptcy, and a large number of soldiers who will do nothing but kill will join the army of unemployed, and then a series of unrest and civil wars will follow, and the country will be over.

The growth of such a neighbor is also not a boon to Serres.

When two beasts fight each other, for the weaker third party, the beast continues to fight and bleed until they are all killed.

This is the dream of all small countries, and in reality, it is indeed not uncommon for small and weak countries to adopt a policy of seeing the wind and steering the two major powers. It's just that not everyone can play the tightrope game well, and there are always many more survivors who fall off the tightrope than there are people who stand on the tightrope.

Seres is fortunate that he is still dangling on a tightrope and that there are like-minded countries willing to pull them along.

"Our goal is to end this war as soon as possible that is not good for everyone. If Alfheim were allowed to defeat Charlemagne, the result would be a new hegemonic power that would be more powerful than Charlemagne and have all-round superiority in the sea, air, and land. This is not good news for all countries. On the other hand, if we send troops to the rescue of Charlemagne so that he does not lose his country, then we will become a feud with Alfheim in the midst of domestic skepticism and opposition, and Charlemagne, who has gained a respite and has not changed his political system, will not be grateful to Dade and will not want to be a pure, obedient tool against Alfheim's expansion. If Charlemagne suffers some of the losses, but retains the backbone of the army, and replaces the current fanatical and belligerent top government leaders with a communicative, rational leadership, then we can intervene in the war. ”

The young nobleman paused, took a sip of black tea, and after soaking his thirsty throat with a drink of honey, he continued:

"We will ensure the sovereign independence of Alfheim, and the warring parties will divide their borders along the Line of Actual Control, i.e., Argentol-Torathon, Lorraine, Byron, Upper and Lower Rhine, Brandenburg, Silesia, West**, Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein, etc., will be ruled by Alfheim, and the Crown of St. István and Ostolia will be chosen by local self-determination to join Alfheim or Charlemagne. As a result, as long as Agen Toraton and Lorrainta were in the hands of Alfheim, Charlemagne and Alfheim could not have reconciled. This is the best-case scenario for everyone. Charlemagne will contain the Pointed Ears Scourge, and Alfheim will contain Charlemagne. ”

In other words, it will be a long-term mess with no winners. The only point is to maintain some kind of rigid and distorted balance to ensure the security, interests and comparative advantage of other countries.

Only the Albions, and only these egoists and realists, who are more pure and thorough than the Seres, dare to provoke and instigate the neighbors on the mainland to fight each other, making everyone uneasy, and calling it the "continental balance policy".

Although it is normal for countries to go back and forth between countries, the basic principles of faith and diplomacy still need to be spoken, and the Albians are holding a shovel to cut their allies with an open fire...... The Serres were a little overwhelmed by this.

Shaking his head, Senior Affairs Officer Rupert Rubinsky shook a trace of unhappiness and disgust out of his mind, and carefully asked:

"Your Excellency, will Charlemagne and Alfheim be willing to accept mediation?"

There is no doubt that this is the heart of the matter.

No matter how perfect the idea is, without the cooperation of the parties involved, the idea will only stay in the imagination stage.

Will Alfheim and Charlemagne be willing to stop?

Charlemagne may be a bit rigid in his brain, and it often happens that he wants to die to save face, but life and death and depreciation to a mess of self-esteem, normal people know which side is more important.

The problem is actually Alfheim.

Unlike the Russo-Japanese War, when both exhausted sides were willing to accept the mediation of Commander Theodore Roosevelt, Alfheim was well equipped to carry the war through to the end, and was sure to win the event. It is more difficult to let them stop now when they are about to win a total victory than to tell a man to give up the girl who is about to be chased. If you are not careful, it can cause resentment in this emerging power, and from a long-term strategic point of view, a Yalfheim who looks at his surroundings with suspicion and resentment is also extremely dangerous.

"So, Charlemagne's regime change is imperative. Only by handing over a sufficient number of troublemakers will we be able to persuade Alfheim to accept such an imperfect, but not unacceptable, peace. ”

Lord Edward Wood, Lord of Halifax, Plenipotentiary of the Kingdom of Albion, said in an unquestionable tone.

"We have made contact with the Yalfheim side, and the dictator has made it clear that he respects the sincerity and sincerity of the nations, and that he will send his cronies to the land of a neutral third party, that is, Serres. However, he believes that in the current situation, as evidence of Charlemagne's pursuit of peace, Alfheim is compelled to ask Charlemagne to make a clearer statement than has been indicated. ”

In other words, regime change is the most basic prerequisite for peace talks. ”

The Plenipotentiary Envoy of the United Principality of Rus' and Foreign Minister Count Vladimir Nikolayevich Ramsdorf, who had remained silent, intervened.

"We also believe that the current Charlemagne cabinet is not fit to take on the heavy responsibility of peace negotiations, and that Charlemagne must be led the way to peace by a more wise and rational leader, and quickly. ”

"If they can't do it themselves, we can help. ”

The Lord said nonchalantly. He had a bad impression of the Dauphin Louis, and on more than one occasion suggested that someone from above send someone to shoot the severely secondary 2 patient in the head.

The two big-mouthed princes on the side didn't have a good impression of each other, and agreed without any suspense.

"So-"

The High Affairs Officer cleared his throat.

"According to the scheduled itinerary, at 3 o'clock this afternoon, the negotiators from both sides will arrive. It is unclear who Alfheim will send, but Charlemagne is represented by Jeanne de Dahlke. ”

"That's a ...... Heavyweights. ”

The Lord's hand froze in mid-air as he was about to struck a match, and it was a full three seconds before he let out a meaningful sneer.

"Let's see if this legendary holy maiden can perform miracles again, and whether Charlemagne can get out of the crisis of the country under the leadership of a woman, just like the oracle that has been handed down since ancient times. ”

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