"Everyone, as you know, Kampaku has lost all his supporters. If we don't push him out when he is down, he will come back with a vengeance once he stabilizes his position," said Jack, with a calm but serious tone.
The representatives looked at each other and nodded. Kampaku never had the support of the ninjas, so it wasn't surprising that the ninjas agreed with Jack. As for nobles, it wasn't surprising either; to begin with, many nobles were expelled to the countryside by Kampaku, so he had many enemies among them.
As for criminal organizations, they took the side of anyone who left them alone and let them run their criminal operations, so when they saw Kampaku's position was insecure, they sent a representative to this meeting.
It was, however, very surprising that even Samurai representatives agreed; after all, the Samurai chief was a friend of Kampaku. Kampaku always cared for samurais, even increasing the samurai ministry's budget by 10%.
The recent backlash against Kampaku from samurais was grassroots, stemming from low-ranking samurais. Samurai chiefs and other higher-ups in samurai circles still supported Kampaku; the representative in this meeting was sent by the samurai association, which represented samurais at large; the samurai leaders condemned this meeting.
As for why the grassroots turned against Kampaku, it's simple: the many lies Kampaku told about Jack were exposed. Jack had written in the samurais' backstory that they admired the hero; Kampaku defamed and insulted the person they respected, so they backlash against him.
Seeing the silence, Jack continued, "If you support me, I will pay back a hundredfold."
Looking at the ninja representative, Jack said, "I will let you guys live in peace and take whatever tasks you want."
Then, he looked at the nobles and said, "I would grant complete autonomy to nobles, not interfering with you at all."
Turning to the criminal gang representative, he assured, "No matter how heinous and repulsive the crimes you commit, my eyes will always remain closed to your acts; you can commit crimes, smuggle, steal, murder, etc., with impunity from the royal government." He assured the criminal gang's representatives.
Looking at the samurais, he said, "Not only will I not interfere with anything, I will give 50% of all taxes to samurais."
Closing his eyes, Jack said, "Basically, I will become an emperor who has closed eyes and ears and allows everyone to enjoy freedom. As a matter of principle, I am against big governments; I believe the government must leave the field open to innovators and smart people, like yourself. Please, do you support me?"
The four people looked at each other; the nobles' representative, a man with short red hair, scratched his head and asked about a certain word in what Jack said, "Did I hear correctly? Did Jack-sama say that you want to become an 'emperor'?" The other three also looked intently at Jack, waiting for an answer.
Even Kampaku didn't dare to remove the emperor formally.
"Yes; the royal family failed us; they are a puppet, and their existence has no benefit to the country," Jack said; he doesn't want to keep a puppet emperor above himself. He believes that if he keeps the emperor and only becomes the Kampaku, issues can arise later.
...
After a while, the four representatives left, saying they would transfer Jack's message to their leaders. After all, these four people were only representatives and didn't have the power to promise anything.
Jack didn't insist and allowed them to leave.
...
The news of the meeting reached everywhere.
Jack held the meeting secretly but didn't expect Kampaku not to find out about it. After all, the Ministry of Truth is incompetent, but not that incompetent.
Thinking about the Ministry of Truth, Jack nodded to himself, "The ministry is too bloated! It has hundreds of thousands of members, yet it is even worse than Mienai ninjas, who only have 1,000 spies." Jack's own personal organization also had a spying branch, but it was worse than ninjas, so for important things, Jack was still using ninjas.
Before, ninjas would have been prohibited from accepting tasks from Jack, but now, they take all tasks as long as the pay is enough. Jack has money, so ninjas spy on him for all he wants.
...
Kampaku was enraged when he realized that criminal gangs sent a representative.
Nobles' representatives were not from all nobles but only those demoted or sent away by him.
Samurai's representatives were only from the Samurai Association and had nothing to do with samurai chiefs and higher-ups. Kampaku would not blame the Samurai chief for samurai representatives.
As for ninjas, they were his enemies anyway.
But it was entirely different when it came to criminal gangs. He inquired and discovered that gang leaders authorized the representative; basically, the gangs threw him under the carriage.
"So disloyal and ungrateful! I allowed you to do whatever you wanted all these years, not only not taking any cut from the profits but even protecting you from nobles; I even paid your debts that time! How dare you betray me!" He was raging when thinking about the matter with gangs.
Still, he calmed himself down; this was not the time for revenge; this was the time to sweeten the deal even further.
So, he wrote a letter to gangs, ninjas, and samurais; as for nobles, he didn't write anything; after all, those nobles were expelled by him, and were his absolute enemies; there was no way to reconcile.
In the letter to the gangs, he promised them weapons, and even the help of the army if the nobles tried to arrest them.
In the letter to Samurais, he apologized for any misunderstanding and promised to improve himself.
In the letter to the ninja chief, he expressed a desire to loosen rules about task acceptance, a contention point with ninjas.
He didn't expect all the letters to work, but he at least tried to make them convincing, not allowing his enemies all to unite against him unanimously.
In the past, even if everyone else united against Kampaku, they would have lost. However, the latest losses against two foreign countries severely damaged Kampaku's credibility not only against nobles and samurais but also among the royal forces.
Royal forces were all under Kampaku's control, but he relied on many loyal subordinates to manage such a massive government. Many of his underlings truly thought he was making the empire strong; they admired him as a strong leader.
But when he lost to foreign forces, it was a mask-off moment when everyone realized that in truth, he was just another cowardly, power-hungry person.
In total, Kampaku relied on three types of subordinates.
The first type was truly loyal subordinates, who sacrificed their lives for him; Kampaku valued these subordinates the most, appointing them as his bodyguards, responsible for his food, etc.
The second type was those on the same ship as him; those who benefited from him, etc.; they were only with him because of monetary benefits.
The third type was the dumb people, who were deceived by the propaganda of his Ministry of Truth and considered him a strong leader, making the country bigger and stronger. The problem for Kampaku was that the biggest group of his subordinates was exactly that group—the one brainwashed by him to think that way.
That propaganda, however effective, began to break down when the empire lost to even the kingdom, a country far smaller and less populous.
Sometimes, propaganda is so effective that people don't believe facts, even if delivered to their door on a silver plate. They might insist something is true and refuse to hear anything contrary. That characteristic of humans originates from their past of being tribal; they believe their side to be righteous, and everyone not with them being bad.
It was exactly like that when humans were evolving; everything for the tribe.
In the empire, too, many brainwashed subordinates, despite having clear facts in their eyes, refused to even think of the possibility that Kampaku may not be as great as they previously thought.
But, aside from those too dumb to even think about other possibilities, many began thinking about whether Kampaku was really making the country stronger. Fortunately for Kampaku, for now, the number of subordinates who bothered using their brains was not high so that he could hold on.
But if too many subordinates start opening their brains, that would be extremely dangerous; if the core of his subordinates, the lieutenants and captains of his royal army and musketeer core, begin to use their heads, that would be horrible. Kampaku wished every one of his subordinates were brainless, just obeying orders; he doesn't want brains from his cannon fodder, he only needs their service.
Still, no matter what Kampaku wishes, the reality is reality; humans, although not among the most intelligent in the universe, still had intelligence, and thus, Kampaku needed to consider them.
To keep his guise, he must find a way to turn defeats in the north and west into victory. To any objective observer, the war in the North and South were both disasters, but his subordinates were not anything close to an objective observer.
They had minds brainwashed by the Ministry of Truth for years and were susceptible to his propaganda. He only needed to come up with something plausible.
Still, he didn't bother racking his brain; he gave the task to the Ministry of Truth's propaganda experts.
...
After a day, the experts came up with a few suggestions.
First: 'Everything was part of a larger plan, a masterful plan no one could understand. These defeats are a part of Kampaku's plans to conquer the world.' This one was vague and very suitable for those with 0 intellectual curiosity; many of his propagandized subordinates would probably believe it.
Second: 'The entire world is against the empire, and Kampaku is the only hope to withstand the aggression of neighboring countries.' Kampaku personally didn't like this one, as it made him sound too different from his usual personality.
Third: 'Kampaku's senior commanders were incompetent and caused losses; specifically, Inazuma was a traitor who colluded with foreign countries and was the main reason for the defeats.' Kampaku didn't like the third either because it made him sound weak and easy to deceive, and made his higher echelon commanders like the villains.
Fourth was…
After some consideration, Kampaku chose the first one but sent it back to the Ministry of Truth for some fine-tuning. After a few days, the Ministry of Truth refined it, and after Kampaku's approval, they started spreading it around.