Empire Conquest
Chapter 389 - 385: Joining in on the Fun

Chapter 389: Chapter 385: Joining in on the Fun

By 10 a.m., the latest news had finally arrived.

The Prime Minister of East Saiyi, Wen Wei, had officially issued a public surrender declaration and ordered all military forces to immediately cease resistance and combat operations.

Yet, there was still no news from the Imperial Capital.

On the issue of whether to accept the East Saiyi surrender, there had always been a great divergence within the Empire.

A few months earlier, the decision to send troops to occupy Long Sorrow Port and to have Niu Man and Sawa establish a regime there was, in fact, the result of this disagreement. Subsequently, the Empire recognized the Long Sorrow regime diplomatically, claiming that the conflict on the Saiyi homeland was a civil war between two regimes, which was also related to this issue.

Fundamentally, it was about disentangling from Saiyi to avoid getting mired in a quagmire populated by tens of millions of residents.

Setting aside the vast military forces required to occupy the whole territory of Saiyi, just maintaining the occupation during the war was a significant problem.

Otherwise, the Saiyi Imperial Kingdom would have been defeated months ago.

Moreover, Bai Zhizhan had another speculation.

Perhaps, Xue Yuanzheng had already received news or similarly judged that the East Saiyi Regime was about to surrender, which was why Bai Zhizhan was assigned the task of attacking Guan Island within the year. Crucially, Bai Zhizhan’s departure from the Imperial Capital under this pretext conveniently avoided the impending storm.

To be honest, most likely, most people were unwilling to accept the surrender of East Saiyi.

It’s simple: the Saiyi Imperial Kingdom had tens of millions of people, and not long ago, the Saiyi Navy, armed by these tens of millions of Saiyi people, had launched a sneak attack on the Imperial Navy.

Besides, what was the West Saiyi Regime for?

The original rationale Xue Yuanzheng gave to the public for allowing Niu Man and Sawa to establish the West Saiyi Regime in Long Sorrow was to enable the Empire to disengage from the Saiyi Imperial Kingdom.

Given this, why should they return to the Saiyi Imperial Kingdom?

If the East Saiyi Regime hadn’t surrendered, that would be understandable; after all, the conflict with the Saiyi Imperial Kingdom had been draining the Empire’s resources, particularly weapons and ammunition. But now that the East Saiyi Regime had already surrendered, why not let the West Saiyi Regime take over? Why should the Empire intervene?

And what about the tens of millions of refugees?

They were not the subjects of the Empire—what did they have to do with the Empire?

Of course, these were just outbursts of frustration.

Regardless, the surrender of the Saiyi Imperial Kingdom had to be accepted.

The reason was simple.

To refuse would mean to fight to the death against all enemies, more precisely, all nations opposed to the Empire would fight to the end!

Could the Empire defeat the whole world?

Even if it could, so what?

Would they let millions or even tens of millions of soldiers be sent to their deaths for the sake of pride or some other reason?

Moreover, how much time would it take to defeat all enemy nations?

Calculating one by one, it would take at least ten years, even twenty!

Although the Empire had long been prepared to take on the world alone and had not expected to bridge the divide with the other Great Powers, seeking victory did not mean refusing enemy surrenders.

As long as an enemy nation announced its surrender, the Empire would have already achieved victory!

Fighting a war of attrition against all enemies would undoubtedly prevent the Empire from achieving ultimate victory.

In fact, there were historical precedents to consider.

The Locke Empire.

At first, the Locke Empire had almost unified the entire West Continent, but it collapsed in front of the last terrestrial enemy due to its insatiable greed.

Looking even further back, the powerful Qin Empire also exhausted six generations of efforts to complete the unification.

The Liangxia Empire hasn’t even reached a hundred years yet!

From another perspective, accepting the Saiyi Imperial Kingdom’s surrender could also be an opportunity to turn things around.

Indeed, it was an opportunity to be exploited.

By noon, there was no new news.

Bai Zhizhan didn’t delay any further; he first made a phone call to the airport, then rushed over with Zhou Yongtao.

This time, he didn’t call Liu Changxun from the airport but directly boarded the plane reserved for members of the Imperial Family.

Around four in the afternoon, Bai Zhizhan returned to the Imperial Capital.

By the time he reached the Navy headquarter, it was already evening.

Certainly, after Bai Zhizhan left, Zhao Yu must have called and informed Liu Changxun, so Liu Changxun was waiting for Bai Zhizhan, and then he took him to the Prime Minister Mansion.

Bai Zhizhan wasn’t wrong; Xue Yuanzheng was busy persuading the other members of the War Cabinet.

Although the Grand Secretary was the leader of the Cabinet and had wartime decision-making power, according to the Empire’s regulations on significant matters, like accepting an enemy country’s surrender, the Emperor’s approval was a must. Crucially, a submission for surrender had to be made to the Privy Council in the name of the Cabinet, which required the support of more than half of the ministers.

Fortunately, Xue Yuanzheng’s efforts were not in vain.

By the time Bai Zhizhan took the flight from Puzhou, Xue Yuanzheng had persuaded the last two ministers and secured more than two-thirds support.

He went to the Privy Council that afternoon.

As a result, when Liu Changxun brought Bai Zhizhan and Zhou Yongtao to the Prime Minister Mansion, Xue Yuanzheng had not yet returned.

But they didn’t wait long.

Before 8 p.m., Xue Yuanzheng returned.

Probably because he had been busy all along, not even having dinner, the dinner was immediately brought over by the personal secretary after Xue Yuanzheng arrived.

Bai Zhizhan, too, hadn’t eaten dinner, or even had lunch for that matter.

While eating dinner, Bai Zhizhan reviewed the draft of the surrender declaration brought back by Xue Yuanzheng.

Because it was the result of compromise, that is, to persuade the other Cabinet ministers, not only the Liangxia Empire was to accept the surrender of the East Saiyi Regime but also the West Saiyi Regime, with the latter taking the lead. The reason given was that the Liangxia Empire had long recognized the West Saiyi Regime and had signed an alliance treaty with it, therefore the war on the Saiyi homeland was, in fact, a civil war within the Saiyi Imperial Kingdom.

The surrender of the East Saiyi Regime marked the end of the civil war.

The biggest advantage of doing this was that there was no need to take responsibility for the humanitarian disaster of the Saiyi Imperial Kingdom.

Humanitarian aid?

Of course, there had to be some, but how much they would give depended on the mood or rather, the capability of the Empire, which certainly wouldn’t be much and couldn’t cover everything.

The document that Xue Yuanzheng brought back was a draft that still needed editing and polishing.

As expected, it would be released tomorrow morning.

In addition, there was also the matter of planning the surrender ceremony.

According to Xue Yuanzheng, first and foremost, the West Saiyi Regime should take over the East Saiyi Army. There was no need to control the entire territory, but at least the Imperial Capital and East Imperial City should be occupied.

Of course, the key was to control Emperor Xia.

The rationale was simple: Emperor Xia symbolized the legitimacy of the regime.

Globally, probably only the Saiyi Imperial Kingdom’s Imperial Family had persisted for more than 2000 years, unchanged no matter how the regime had alternated.

This was also a major reason why the Saiyi Imperial Kingdom was known as the "Imperial Country".

According to Xue Yuanzheng’s estimation, it would be next month at the earliest before the West Saiyi’s National Self-Defense Force could control the situation, and only then could the official surrender be discussed.

Although the West Saiyi Regime was to take the lead, the Empire certainly had to participate.

Moreover, a representative location for signing the surrender document had to be chosen.

Xue Yuanzheng believed that it would be best to do it aboard a ship, and a Battleship at that, with East Capital Bay being the optimal location. He considered having an Army general take the lead.

In any case, the Army had undertaken almost all of the later stages of the war.

As for the choice of individuals, Xue Yuanzheng recommended Li Yunxiang.

In addition, Eldest Prince Li Qing had to be considered.

On the Navy side, it would be either Bai Zhizhan or Liu Xiangzhen, and both Xue Yuanzheng and Liu Changxun inclined toward bestowing this honor on Bai Zhizhan.

The reason was simple: in the few decisive naval battles that defeated the Saiyi Navy, Bai Zhizhan played a leading role.

However, Bai Zhizhan’s hasty return to the Imperial Capital wasn’t to join in the hustle or because he was worried about Liu Xiangzhen representing the Navy in accepting the surrender, it was for a matter of even greater importance.