Empire Conquest
Chapter 194 - 190: Aid Bill

Chapter 194: Chapter 190: Aid Bill

Rofuss most admired political figures were, apart from the Founding Fathers of the Newland Federation, the current Grand Secretary of the Liangxia Empire.

In Rofuss’s own words, if given a choice, he would rather be friends with Xue Yuanzheng.

In this world, perhaps no one wanted to be Xue Yuanzheng’s opponent.

Not to mention anything else, in the past decade, Xue Yuanzheng had done many things that Rofuss had always wanted to do but never dared or was unable to do.

Most representative was the promotion of trade relationships with other countries by opening up its markets.

Though when evaluating this matter, most Westerners, including Rofuss, used the basic discourse of "historical inevitability." The Liangxia Empire had suffered a crushing defeat in the last great war, and its international status and influence had almost been reduced to zero, so there was a necessity to adopt an open attitude to reshape the national image, breaking the international order established by the Western Powers after the war to gain more widespread benefits.

However, Rofuss never denied that the trade and economic policies promoted by Xue Yuanzheng were fundamentally designed to counteract and alleviate the impact of the Great Depression, through trade to solve the country’s economic development problems, promoting interaction and exchanges with other countries, which were actually just incidental functions. As for reshaping the post-war international order, even if it was the primary strategic objective, that was a result that came after the development of economic and trade exchanges.

Thus, in the ten years after the outbreak of the Great Depression, the economic development of the Liangxia Empire was the most normal.

Of course, one could only describe it as "normal" because the unemployment rates were frighteningly high in all countries, and maintaining normalcy was quite an achievement.

Interestingly, almost all countries benefited from the open trade policies of the Liangxia Empire.

The Newland Federation was no exception.

Years ago, the Liangxia Empire had become the Newland Federation’s largest export destination and its second-largest source of imports.

Oil extracted from the Texan oilfields, food produced from the Mississippi River Plain’s farms, and even manufactured goods from eastern factories were exported to the Liangxia Empire, providing substantial income to thousands of workers, farmers, and entrepreneurs, supporting millions of families.

Imports from the Liangxia Empire, from porcelain that every household needed, to ocean-crossing ships, and the automobiles that had begun to be popularized in recent years, to still luxurious goods like silk and other textiles, had deeply integrated into the lives of Newland’s citizens.

If it was so for the Newland Federation, could other countries be doing better?

Not to mention other countries, even the Saiyi Imperial Country was highly dependent on the Liangxia Empire for trade.

To be a bit blunt, if it weren’t for the aggressive stance of the Liangxia Empire on some international issues, war would not have broken out.

For instance, the Liangxia Empire had always sought to reclaim the North and South Sado Islands and to militarize them.

If there were no plans to militarize the North and South Sado Islands, why bother to reclaim them?

To force the Saiyi Imperial Country into making concessions, the Liangxia Empire used food and scrap iron exports as leverage, leaving the Saiyi Imperial Country with no real options.

At this point, discussing this was useless.

The problem facing Rofuss was very simple: in the short term, unless Xue Yuanzheng lost his mind and ordered the Liangxia Navy to attack Guan Island or Nanzhu Country, regardless of how this war progressed, even if the Liangxia armies landed on Saiyi soil and completely devastated the Saiyi Imperial Country, Congress would not approve deployment of troops in accordance with the alliance treaty, accurately speaking, the alliance treaty did not stipulate such an obligation.

However, he absolutely could not just watch the Saiyi Imperial Country be defeated.

If the Newland Federation remained a bystander, then the Saiyi Imperial Country could last at most a year, perhaps even declaring defeat in a few months.

The reason was simple: the Saiyi Imperial Country simply did not have the capability to sustain a prolonged war.

An island country with few resources, after losing command of the sea and having its maritime routes cut off, what could it use to hold out?

According to the intelligence Rofuss had, the Saiyi Imperial Country’s food reserves could last until next spring. If next summer’s and autumn’s harvests were good, they might be able to last until next winter. But beyond that, eighty million Saiyi people would have to eat dirt.

Additionally, there was a psychological impact.

The Saiyi Imperial Country dared challenge the Liangxia Empire relying on the Newland Federation and the Bulan Kingdom; if these two allies only observed, the morale and fighting spirit of the Saiyi military and civilians would rapidly diminish to zero.

Without the confidence to continue fighting, what else could they hold on to?

What should be done?

The approach lay in the hands of Rofuss.

"Aid Bill."

Of course, it couldn’t be called a bill before obtaining congressional approval.

The core content of this bill was to provide supplies or funds for purchasing supplies through various means such as grants, conditional aid, unsecured loans, and secured loans in accordance with legally binding treaties of an alliance nature previously signed with friendly countries like the Saiyi Imperial Kingdom, Bulan Kingdom, and Locke Republic, helping allies who were being invaded or potentially facing military threats to get through tough times.

Specifically, it was about providing military aid to the Saiyi Imperial Kingdom.

It just took a few detours and sounded nicer.

All this trouble was merely to deal with those incompetent folks in Congress.

Moreover, Rofuss had already prepared the first aid agreement.

According to his plan, the Saiyi Imperial Kingdom would use the trusteeship rights to the North Ma Islands as collateral to obtain a loan from the Newland Federation and procure military supplies from the Newland Federation.

For this, Rofuss had even sent the Secretary of State a few days earlier to meet the ambassador of the Saiyi Imperial Kingdom to discuss this matter in person.

However, up to now, the Saiyi Imperial Kingdom had not given a response.

There was nothing surprising about this; they wouldn’t shed tears without seeing the coffin.

A few days ago, the naval battle on the West East Ocean hadn’t ended yet, and perhaps the higher-ups of the Saiyi Imperial Kingdom still harbored some illusions, thinking they could get help without resorting to such means.

Moreover, what the top leaders of Saiyi wanted wasn’t aid, but for the Newland Federation and Bulan Kingdom to send troops into the war!

Now, did the Saiyi Imperial Kingdom still have options?

This was far from enough.

Apart from food, the Saiyi Imperial Kingdom urgently needed military supplies, of which the Newland Federation had little, and many of them could not be used for aid.

What did the Saiyi Imperial Kingdom desperately need now?

Battleships!

Could the Newland Federation provide active-duty battleships as aid to the Saiyi Imperial Kingdom?

Obviously not!

Don’t forget, what the Saiyi Imperial Kingdom needed most now were carriers and fast battleships, which the Newland Navy also lacked.

If there were enough carriers and fast battleships, would there be any need to resort to such inefficient methods as "aid"?

Speaking clearly, the congress members were unwilling to be enemies with the Liangxia Empire, not only because of economic relations but also because the military strength of the Newland Federation was not yet strong enough to defeat the Liangxia Empire; otherwise, the Newland Federation would have long since raised the banner to besiege the Liangxia Empire.

Provide aid with destroyers, such small battleships?

Even if it were possible to provide aid, it wouldn’t mean much.

Moreover, with materials like food being blocked in the Saiyi Imperial Kingdom and sea transport routes cut off, it was questionable whether they could even be transported.

Even providing escorts wouldn’t fundamentally solve the problem.

Just providing aid was far from enough.

For this, Rofuss had another plan up his sleeve.

Now, that plan had already arrived at the Grey Palace, just outside the President’s office in the west wing.