Empire Conquest
Chapter 293 - 289 Army’s Backup Plan

Chapter 293: Chapter 289 Army’s Backup Plan

In the Baku negotiations, the most prominent and divisive issue was how to deal with the Locke Republic or, rather, how to treat the Locke Republic.

This contradiction had nothing to do with the Liangxia Empire; it was a matter concerning the Tiaoman Empire and the Luosha Federation.

At the very beginning, the Tiaoman Empire advocated winning over the Locke Republic, even if it didn’t allow the Locke Republic to join the alliance, keeping it neutral would suffice.

The stance of the Luosha Federation was the exact opposite; they expected the Tiaoman Empire to eliminate any potential threats by taking decisive military action to defeat the Locke Republic.

Such significant differences between the two sides were entirely understandable.

The Locke Republic had long reconciled with the Tiaoman Empire. It was not only an ally but also a strong backer of the Tiaoman Empire.

Although from the standpoint of the Liangxia Empire, this so-called support of the Tiaoman Empire was hardly worth mentioning—as the Locke Republic’s Navy was but a mere ornament, and they were separated by half the world—for the Luosha Federation, it was a genuine, undeniable threat.

After Emperor Peter established the Luosha Empire, the only enemy that ever captured the Luosha Capital was the former Locke Empire.

In the eyes of the Luosha Federation, the alliance between the Tiaoman Empire and the Locke Republic was an uncertain factor, posing a significant threat to the tripartite secret treaty.

Because of this issue, the secret talks nearly broke down halfway.

The reason was simple: Did the Tiaoman Empire care about a tripartite secret treaty when it had such a backer?

Furthermore, it was to deal with the threat posed by the Luosha Federation that the Tiaoman Empire accepted the olive branch from the Locke Republic and formed an alliance with it.

If the Tiaoman Empire broke this agreement, the first to suffer would be the Luosha Federation.

During the negotiations, the Army representative of the Luosha Federation clearly stated that with the support of the Locke Army, even if it was just a temporary respite from the threat in the west, the Tiaoman Army could deploy significant forces to the east and launch a strategic offensive potent enough to destroy a nation, hence the Luosha Federation would not let its guard down just because of the formation of a secret treaty.

By implication, as long as the alliance between the Tiaoman Empire and the Locke Republic existed, the Luosha Federation would not withdraw or weaken the troops deployed on the Western Front to guard against the Tiaoman Empire. Under such circumstances, the Tiaoman Empire obviously could not concentrate its forces on combating the Bulan Kingdom.

Indeed, if that were the case, the tripartite alliance would be meaningless.

However, to get the Luosha Federation to drop its guard, it wasn’t as simple as the Tiaoman Empire breaking the alliance with the Locke Republic.

The safest solution was to dispatch troops to attack and militarily occupy the Locke Republic.

In this way, without a western ally, the Tiaoman Empire would focus all its attention on the tripartite alliance.

During those days in the middle of the negotiations, almost all the time was spent dealing with this issue.

In the end, both sides made compromises.

The Tiaoman Empire assured that if the issue of the Locke Republic, specifically the negative effects arising from it, were not adequately resolved before their participation in combat, the Tiaoman Empire would certainly launch a surprise attack on the Locke Republic after the outbreak of war, meaning they would start by attacking and occupying the Locke Republic.

If necessary, the Tiaoman Empire would also sweep the western areas of the West Continent.

Additionally, the so-called "adequate method" was to have the Locke Republic join the Three Giants Contract Group as a vassal.

As agreed upon, the Tiaoman Empire would provide guarantees for the Locke Republic.

In other words, the Tiaoman Empire would be responsible for the actions of the Locke Republic after it joined the alliance and would bear all related consequences.

Before participating in the war, the Tiaoman Empire would regularly report the relevant situation to the Luosha Federation and the Liangxia Empire.

To persuade the Luosha Federation, the Liangxia Empire also had to vouch for the Tiaoman Empire.

This was also why the Liangxia Empire, during the initial phase of its offensive, provided arms to the Luosha Federation in the name of military aid as part of the strategic plan.

What was called aid was, in reality, collateral for the guarantee.

It could be said that the fears of the Luosha Federation were somewhat superfluous.

No matter how the Tiaoman Empire struggled, there was one undeniable fact: the Tiaoman Empire had always secretly allied with the Liangxia Empire, and unless the Liangxia Empire intended to confront the Luosha Federation, even with the support of the Locke Republic, the Tiaoman Empire would never set its sights on the Luosha Federation.

The reason was utterly simple.

The Tiaoman Empire had been able to coexist peacefully with the Liangxia Empire, maintaining an alliance for decades, crucially because the two countries did not share a border.

As for the common enemies faced during external expansion, and their shared interests, these were of secondary importance.

After the fall of the Luosha Federation, even after propping up several puppet governments, the Tiaoman Empire would still face direct conflicts of interest with the Liangxia Empire.

Compared to the Liangxia Empire, the Luosha Federation was insignificant.

It made no sense to offend a greater power in an effort to deal with a lesser one.

To put it plainly, the Luosha Federation was in fact a buffer zone between the two great empires.

Unfortunately, the Luosha Federation obviously did not see it that way, or rather, it would not view the situation from the perspective of a third party when its own vital interests were at stake.

For this reason, there was a contingency plan within the Army’s joint operation strategy specifically designed to deal with the Locke Republic.

Bai Zhizhan, representing the Navy, did not know much about the plan, just the gist of it.

The Tiaoman Army would emulate and adopt the tactics used by the Imperial Army when attacking Ice Storm Peninsula, launching a blitzkrieg to defeat the Locke Republic as quickly as possible.

How exactly the battle would be fought was a matter for the Army.

This was why Li Qing, representing the Army, was crucial in attending the negotiations in Baku.

As Bai Zhizhan understood, before the conquest of Gaozhou, Li Qing had been charging at the front alongside Lian Xusheng, even leading the Armored Forces on an assault. After occupying Gaozhou, that is, during the march to Buju, Li Qing went to the Eastern Front to take charge and was the first to reach the outskirts of Buju City.

While there was some exaggeration—after all, the main forces led by Lian Xusheng on the Western Front had drawn away the bulk of the enemy’s troops—it must also be acknowledged that Li Qing was undoubtedly competent in commanding the Armored Forces in combat; otherwise, even if he were the Eldest Prince, Lian Xusheng would never have dared to let him take on such a significant role.

This contingency plan also included the cleansing of the eastern regions of the Svia Peninsula, namely the Kingdom of Viking.

That was, indeed, the key part.

Attacking the Kingdom of Viking was related to subsequent combat operations against the Bulan Kingdom, as the Tiaoman Navy needed an outlet to the North Sunset Ocean. Only after occupying the Kingdom of Viking could the Tiaoman Navy’s ships smoothly enter the North Sunset Ocean to implement a strategic blockade against the Bulan Kingdom.

For this reason, during negotiations, the Liangxia Empire exerted pressure on the Tiaoman Empire, thus resulting in this contingency plan.

The crux was that the Tiaoman Empire could not maintain friendly relations with the Locke Republic while deploying troops to sweep through and occupy the Kingdom of Viking.

In short, the contingency plan was more complex, its implementation more challenging, and the consequences less predictable.

Even Li Qing felt that the Tiaoman Empire lacked the wherewithal to conduct a blitzkrieg against the Locke Republic at this point; the likelihood of victory through such a rapid assault was not high.

If it were possible to persuade the Locke Republic to maintain a favorably neutral stance, that would be ideal.

But as things stood, the hopes were not high.

It wasn’t that the Tiaoman Empire hadn’t tried its best, but the time was too pressing; there simply wasn’t a way to make the leaders of the Locke Republic realize the urgency of the situation.

In the golden decade after the war, especially after reconciliation with the Tiaoman Empire, the Locke Republic, from top to bottom, had already let down its guard.

The phrase "when the horse is lost, one locks the stable door" applied here—spiritually, they had already disarmed.

To rearm?

Clearly, that was impossible!

Producing guns and cannons was easy, but changing ideologies and mindsets was not so simple.