Zhao Chen felt just then that he wanted only a handful of melon seeds in his hand; a chance to watch another's play out like this is rare enough.
He rather wished to see how this Song Chen would handle the business.
As Zhao Chen saw it, there were three choices and no more.
The lowest: to break with them outright, and not divide the small world's resources.
In which case, in the campaigns to follow, these conservative families might well set a foot in the way of this war, by an insufficient supply of resources, and so forth.
And Song Chen and his people would have to fear for their own home ground besides; should these men turn rebel, the consequence would not bear thinking of.
The middle course.
Which is to hold the larger situation first, and grant what the other side asks.
By which at least, though it swell the conservatives' strength and capital.
The present situation, at all events, will not go wrong.
And the highest course, as Zhao Chen could conceive it,
was to play for time.
To grant the conservatives' demands in words first, while in fact beginning quietly to lay one's pieces.
And to find a way to pull these conservative great houses up at the smallest cost.
So as to touch the Alliance, and the present state of things, as little as might be.
And yet to root out these conservatives altogether, and bring the Alliance wholly into one's own hand.
Only that this course carries great risk, and wants preparation enough.
Were it his own Owl Dragon world, Zhao Chen might perhaps have been sure of it.
But here, he knew far too little of this Song Chen, and of the cards in the man's hand, nothing whatever.
So naturally he had no notion how sure of it the man might be.
After that there was a great tugging back and forth of lance-tongues and spear-words in the conference room.
And in the end Song Chen spoke, and granted the conservatives' proposal.
Zhao Chen frowned slightly: could it be that the fellow had taken the middle course?
And so he might; in the present state of things, it was the best way.
Though in the dividing of the small universe's resources that followed, there was another round of wrangling.
At last a basic partition was settled upon.
With which none of them was greatly satisfied, though at least no one came off too badly.
And so the conference might be called concluded.
"Ha, ha, ha, we thank the Leader for his trust. Hereafter we shall support this war with all our strength. So that our Alliance fleets may destroy the other world's fleets the sooner, and take the small world!" one said with a fawning laugh.
But the meaning of the words sat very ill,
as though in the campaigns before this they had not been giving their all.
Song Chen ran his eye over these conservatives and pointed at the several agreements just signed. "Do not forget what you have undertaken. Today you are to send down these orders. Within three days every resource must be in place."
In the discussion just now Song Chen had given ground.
But he had put conditions of his own besides.
A great part of which were resources of war.
He knew very well that these conservative families had in fact hidden away no little productive capacity, precisely to throttle the offensive at the front.
Song Chen had proposed just now that, to hasten the speed of the attack upon the small world, the output of some part of the raw-material resources must be increased.
Mark it well!
What Song Chen said was 'increase output', and not that these great houses were named to hand anything over.
The words gave these great houses their full measure of face besides.
I know you have things hidden in your hands, but I give you face and do not say it outright.
Now the matter is settled; the resources you ought to give, you will obediently cough up for me.
"Understood! Understood! I shall go back and send the order down this moment. We shall see beyond doubt that these resources reach the front fleets' hands at once!" said the head of one family, laughing heartily.
The conference broke up.
But Zhao Chen saw that Song Qingshan, upon leaving the conference room, went into a small room next door.
And in that small room, Song Chen, Shangguan Qiangwei, and a woman very familiar to Zhao Chen were all of them present.
Why familiar?
It was because that woman was the very strange woman from his 'hero rescues the fair' of a while before.
To be able to appear on such an occasion, she was indeed no ordinary person.
"You wanted me. What is it?" Song Qingshan's manner toward this brother of his was altogether other than it had been in the banquet hall.
Song Chen looked at him. "Song Qingshan, I know you have no great liking for me. I have much the same for you. But one must say that, by my watching of you this while past, you are at least the one among the Song family's direct line who has ability and is no wastrel. Above all your showing in this top-secret operation. Though I am of the Song, I shall not take over the Song family. But the Song cannot hereafter be without a man to hold its power. I would have you be that man. So in the time to come I shall hasten your training on. This time, indeed, I had meant to raise you straight to lieutenant general, and within three years to a marshal's rank outright. But certain people who cannot tell good from ill dissuaded me. So I could only arrange a major general first. But the plan that follows is unchanged. Though the first condition is to clear away certain people who stand in the way."
Hearing that Song Chen meant to bring him on, Song Qingshan was not surprised.
For by Song Chen's trust and his arrangements this while past, he had been able to foresee it.
"I have no interest in the seat of the Song family's head," Song Qingshan said calmly.
That was the truth.
He longed only for the sea of stars; he loved only the feel of an interstellar fighter galloping across a battlefield.
Song Chen said mildly: "You may refuse. The Song family is not in truth of great importance to me; I might very well raise up some other house. But if the Song be handed into another's keeping. Do you think the Song has any future? What your blood kin are capable of, aren't you clear on that? Or is it that you do not care about the Song either?"
Faced with Song Chen's retreating in order to advance,
Song Qingshan frowned, and at the last sat down in a chair at the side and said, somewhat put out, "Say it, then. What is the business?"
"I mean to clear away those several great houses which at this conference urged the dividing of the small world's resources," Song Chen said.
"Clear away? Now? Aren't you afraid of disorder within the Alliance?" Song Qingshan was greatly startled.
"That is indeed a hidden danger. So once we move, we must be quick! So long as we are quick enough, the hidden watchers I have set in those families will act at once. And take those families in hand," said Song Chen.
Song Qingshan stared at him; the plan was in truth nothing out of the common.
There is the like of it in many a struggle for a seat or for power.
But the difficulty lies in the doing.
"The heads of these few families are every one of them most careful and most cautious. How should they not be guarding against this very hand of yours? That Murong Bo, coming to this banquet. He brought a private fleet of three thousand interstellar warships with him. To destroy them is easily said. And without a living soul knowing of it besides." Song Qingshan shook his head.
But Song Chen said with a cold smile: "And what if I told you. That their discussing with us this time is in fact a snare. And that in truth they have their plan already laid to do away with me?"
Song Qingshan started up violently, and looked at Song Chen past all believing.