Like the title said, I am looking for a political novel with a smart male lead. It would be even better if it has a wars too. So far I have read The Grandmaster Strategist History’s Strongest Husband Everlasting Immortal Firmament (though politics are little but mc is a sly fox through out the story) The Human Emperor
Not very political but give Isaac a try. On second thought it can be a very political novel depending on how you look at it.
Dodging Prison and Stealing Witches. ... What? It's political, I say. Hmm. The translation for City of Sin was completed recently. The MC of that one assumes a noble title, leads armies and whatnot. The author's other stories have similar themes, too, with different settings. With less (as in, "no") armies, Lord of Mysteries has been fairly popular for awhile now. I guess I'd say the MC of that one is 'very smart'. At least, he isn't the usual self-righteous lunatic. The novel actually has some fairly impressive arcs.
Dungeon Defense has politics as well. You can also give 'Da Tang Shuang Long Zhuan' and 'Nirvana In Fire' a try
You should try " Kingdom's Bloodline ". It's one of the most politically heavy novels I've ever read. It's filled with countless schemes and plots so much that it makes you wonder how the MC was able to live in such an environment.
Works fine for me. Odd. How about if I cut off the unnecessary bits? https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11574569/
I think fanfic is blocked for my country now that I think about it. Yup. It's banned since around 2017.
Genjitsushugi Yuusha no Oukoku Saikenki there is plenty of politics and the ML is pretty smart, though if you want more volume maybe you have to search in google or read in j-novel
The quality of this book may be up to debate, but it's pretty undeniable that, despite what the narrative may claim, the protagonists are as dumb as rocks. Their short term plans tend to be utterly stupid and based on all sorts of unfounded assumptions, and their long term plans are even worse. For the actual topic, I do have a number of books to recommend, but they all tend to be either undertranslated or are completely untranslated, so I'd only bring them up if the OP can read Chinese.