I would point out that VV said that taking out the Eunuch was an issue because it was so short notice, not that an assassination was in of itself a problem.[X][ISD] Keep the current deal until further notice with the addition of allowing him the remaining half of the sakuradite you will purchase from the IC. (Maintain the +1 Stewardship Action for 3 more years and Choose 3)
-[X] Merchant Marine (+Navy Support, 1 Reroll on Naval-related Military Actions per year.)
-[X] Shadow Companies (Opens up Special Intrigue/Military Actions)
-[X] Political Backing (Bonus to Rolls Defending Territory Claims)
[X][XB] You're simply too busy even with the new members of your entourage, however you could see if your mother would take him. You can trust her to be discreet.
Look... quite simply even if there is the worse case scenario in the CF there is not much we can do about it. Even OSI took pause at taking on just ONE High Eunuch, not all of them which is what we would have to do. I would remind people that with Charles and Anastasia, Charles had a Brittanian army backing him and we... well don't. Also remember this axiom "Never fight a land war in Asia" and this the High Eunuchs will not kill her, since killing her would be extinguishing the Mandate of Heaven which is still VERY much a thing here, enough that when a CF military officer saw we had our scroll he obeyed us without question. Setting any sort of infiltration mission into the forbidden Palace would be on par if not further than breaking into Anatasia's Winter Palace, a task we failed at. Suffice to say, however terrible it may be, this might be a situation where we are forced to do nothing.
Given that we stirred up a hornet's next both with Guinevere and in Australia I think our best option is to go for Merchant Marines to keep ahead on any piracy, and Political backing to stop any Guinevere courtiers or supporters making it harder for us to make a claim. Shadow Companies I am opting to take because it opens up special actions which may reveal something we can use
Regarding Xiaobao... We need our entourage focusing on their tasks, not one splitting their time. Our mother is pretty low maintenance and I am certain can give this matter the attention we can not. Unfortunately she'd probably be able to grind his SLs the fastest as she can focus more on them than us.
Also our info network is going to be much more imbedded in China than the OSI is once we actually finish setting it up. It's already given us info that the OSI didn't have in its half ready state.
I do agree though that taking military action would be highly unwise. Diplomatic and Intrigue though we should absolutely do and would be my preferred focus in those categories this turn.
What part of "assign him a permanent handler" isn't registering? We wouldn't be the one grinding his SL, Euphie or Kaguya would be. Delegation is a wonderful thing.Do we really have the time to invest 7 turns turning around his SL? There's no guarantee we will gain SL levels faster than 1 or 2 a turn with him. I don't think we have had ANY SL increase by more than 2 ever.