Empire Conquest
Chapter 378 - 374: Not a Good Thing

Chapter 378: Chapter 374: Not a Good Thing

Raleigh Kingdom was indeed a fair-weather friend.

Long before the outbreak of the great war, when the Luosha Federation had not even joined, the Tiaoman Empire had proposed that they pull Raleigh Kingdom into the alliance, solving the problem of a strong enemy in the West Continent without bloodshed and ensuring that after the war began, they could control the entire West Continent at the fastest speed.

At that time, it was indeed necessary.

The key was that they had not yet persuaded the Luosha Federation.

Since there was a potential for war with the Luosha Federation, strategically speaking, the Tiaoman Empire had to first eliminate nearby threats.

Otherwise, the Liangxia Empire would have to undertake the main combat duties.

This meant that while the Imperial Navy faced a formidable enemy in the East Ocean, the Imperial Army would be in a do-or-die battle with the Luosha Army in the heartland of the Giant Continent.

Starting with a two-front war certainly didn’t bode well for the future.

The center of the Luosha Federation was in the western part of the West Continent, so strategically, it was necessary for the Tiaoman troops to take on the role of the main offensive force.

In this way, if they could pull Raleigh Kingdom in advance, even if the country was outwardly strong but inwardly weak, it would leave the Tiaoman Empire without worries.

According to the plan at the time, the Tiaoman Empire even planned to let Raleigh Kingdom delay the Locke Republic and launch a blitz attack on the Luosha Federation after the war began. After defeating the Luosha Federation, they would then turn to sweep the western regions of the West Continent.

That was the reason the Liangxia Empire had not objected.

Interestingly, in the end, the matter fizzled out.

The reason was simple: Raleigh Kingdom was not optimistic about the Tiaoman Empire and believed it would be defeated again. Therefore, after the Tiaoman Empire extended the alliance invitation, Raleigh Kingdom ended up revealing the information to the Locke Republic, causing the Tiaoman authorities great effort to dispel the suspicions of the Locke Republic.

Fortunately, the Tiaoman Empire had not revealed to Raleigh Kingdom that it had secretly formed an alliance with the Liangxia Empire.

From this, one could see that Raleigh Kingdom was truly unreliable.

Still, one could not deny the importance of Raleigh Kingdom or the necessity of including it in the alliance.

Firstly, it would allow the troops intended to attack Raleigh Kingdom to be deployed elsewhere, thus saving a large amount of ammunition and supplies planned for use.

According to the plan, the Tiaoman Empire had prepared a group army cluster, planning to deploy 800,000 troops to contend with Raleigh Kingdom.

These troops, if used elsewhere, would definitely be of extraordinary significance.

Secondly, Raleigh Kingdom possessed the most powerful fleet in the Land Heart Sea, including four old battleships, two newly built battleships, and two under construction. If one counted the main battle ships of the Locke Republic, the total power already surpassed the Land Heart Sea Fleet of the Bulan Royal Navy.

With the support of this fleet, marching south to the Xuan Continent would naturally follow.

If they could control the naval power in the Land Heart Sea, it would be possible to cut off the sea transport routes of the Bulan Kingdom and even capture the Xifan Canal without needing to deploy many ground troops.

Of course, as long as Raleigh Kingdom was willing to contribute, it wouldn’t even require the Tiaoman Empire to send troops.

This might be the key reason Raleigh Kingdom was willing to join the Consortium Group—the Tiaoman Empire had already privately promised that including the Xifan Canal, the northern coast of the Xuan Continent, and the eastern coast of the Land Heart Sea—that is, the entire region around the Land Heart Sea—would be granted to Raleigh Kingdom.

In this way, Raleigh Kingdom would be able to restore the territory of the Ancient Raleigh Empire!

The deciding factor still was, under the influence of the Bulan Kingdom, the Alliance Group would definitely not make such an offer to Raleigh Kingdom, as Bulan Kingdom would never give up the Land Heart Sea, let alone the Xifan Canal, which is crucial for maintaining colonial rule in the Fanluo region.

Clearly, after joining the Consortium Group, Raleigh Kingdom would advocate prioritizing the invasion of the Xuan Continent.

This is also the most worrying aspect.

Although the Locke Republic had already been defeated and surrendered, its colonial government in the northern part of the Xuan Continent had not yet surrendered, and the main force of the Locke Navy, namely several battleships of the Land Heart Sea Fleet, had gone to the colonial ports, and the ownership of these main battleships had always been the center of attention.

In fact, the officials of the colonial government were still watching and waiting.

If the situation remained stable, perhaps a few months later, those battleships would embark on a journey back to Locke’s homeland and then follow the orders of the Tiaoman Navy.

Now, this seemed unlikely.

As soon as the Raleigh Kingdom entered the war, the first thing the Bulan Royal Navy would do was to eliminate those Locke battleships stationed in the northern ports of the Xuan Continent.

The reason is simple, they absolutely cannot let these battleships fall into the hands of the Tiaoman Navy.

The Raleigh Navy was already strong enough, and if it got bolstered by Locke’s battleships, the hegemonic position of the Bulan Royal Navy in the Land Heart Sea would be in jeopardy.

Moreover, the Bulan Royal Navy would also set its sights on the Raleigh Navy, striving to dismantle the Raleigh Navy before the Tiaoman Navy could act.

Would the Tiaoman Navy just stand by and watch?

If not, the only thing they could do was to dispatch the "Prime Minister" to force the Bulan Royal Navy to focus on its homeland.

Perhaps, this was exactly why the Tiaoman Navy proposed that the "Prime Minister" could be deployed as soon as November but suggested delaying the action until the first half of next year.

To put it plainly, they wanted the Liangxia Empire to pay for the sortie operation of the "Prime Minister."

From the Navy’s perspective, this indeed had significant advantages.

The logic was, the Bulan Royal Navy needed to deal with the remnant forces of the Locke Navy, confront the not-so-weak Raleigh Navy in the Land Heart Sea, and also face the Tiaoman Navy in the North Sunset Ocean; even though the Bulan Royal Navy was the third strongest globally and the strongest in the West Continent, it was certainly not easy, and it definitely required a lot of time, thus making it impossible to launch any military operations in the Fan Flame Ocean over the next few months.

Looking at the bigger picture, it offered no advantages.

The reason was simple: the Raleigh Kingdom’s joining the Consortium Group as a vassal state of the Tiaoman Empire essentially forced the Luosha Federation to lean towards the Alliance Group.

In a sense, the Raleigh Kingdom was the weight that shifted the balance.

In terms of military and industrial strength, the Tiaoman Empire was actually stronger than the Luosha Federation.

All along, it was the Western Locke Republic that maintained the strategic balance in the West Continent, since the Locke Republic constrained the Tiaoman Empire who dared not use all their forces in the east, making it difficult to achieve a decisive strategic advantage over the Luosha Federation.

With the collapse of the Locke Republic, the Raleigh Kingdom had become the maintainer of strategic balance.

Now with the Raleigh Kingdom added, the Tiaoman Empire indeed became the undisputed hegemon of the West Continent!

To be realistic, where would the planned 800,000-strong army, originally meant to confront the Raleigh Kingdom, be deployed?

If the operations on the Xuan Continent were to be carried out by Raleigh troops, what would be the value of Tiaoman’s army of over two million, along with several million mobilized servicemen?

They surely wouldn’t be sent to attack the Bulan Kingdom, especially as an invincible Tiaoman Army still faced a sea channel, several tens of kilometers wide, that only the Navy could cross.

The Luosha Federation would definitely not believe that a mere treaty could guarantee safety, especially a secret treaty that could be annulled at any time.

In fact, there was another key point.

With no other options, the Bulan Kingdom might very well make significant concessions, yielding the Boi Country within its traditional sphere of influence to the Luosha Federation, or even making similar concessions in the Fanluo region, such as ceding the northern part of the Ahan Plateau, in exchange for the Luosha Federation’s defection to lessen its burden.

If so, the defection of the Luosha Federation would become a certainty!