Thanks for the TL.
...
Lame.
This isn't how politics works; this is how people playing L5R, or Amtgard, or some kind of RPG (live-action or otherwise) think that politics works, maybe...
But it's not; people just aren't that easy to manipulate, and it doesn't happen in a vacuum, where nobody questions or "finds out" about your plot.
I get that the author is making it easy for the reader to understand, but most readers aren't that dumb, are they?
I mean, most of you seem semi-intelligent at least... which is where I rate myself, so...
It just doesn't seem like the average reader can't figure some of this out without the exposition, even if a lot of us are fairly baked while reading this...