Empire Conquest
Chapter 397 - 393: Raising the Stakes

Chapter 397: Chapter 393: Raising the Stakes

The Newland Navy will send a carrier mixed fleet to launch a surprise attack on East Capital Bay?

To say, when entering the war planning stage, Bai Zhizhan had not considered this issue at all.

More than a month ago, which was after the Saiyi Imperial Kingdom declared its surrender, Bai Zhizhan urgently returned to the Imperial Capital. After proposing to use this event to set a trap for the Newland Navy, he had an in-depth discussion with Xue Yuanzheng.

At that time, he posed a very sharp question: Why would the Luosha Federation betray?

In fact, Bai Zhizhan had never understood the reason for the Luosha Federation’s betrayal.

Is there a greater chance of success by joining the Alliance Group?

Clearly not!

From any perspective, the chances of winning by joining the Alliance Group may not be greater than staying with the Consortium Group.

As mentioned many times before, the only outcome of the Luosha Federation’s betrayal in the heat of battle was to become the mortal enemy that the Liangxia Empire and the Tiaoman Empire would eagerly eliminate. Even setting aside emotional factors and looking purely at practical interests—to preserve the Tiaoman Empire—Liangxia Empire would deploy heavy forces to destroy the Luosha Federation.

To put it directly, the importance of the battlefields on the Giant Continent became equal to that of the East Ocean battlefield after the Luosha Federation’s betrayal.

In theory, as long as the Liangxia Empire was willing to make an effort, destroying the Luosha Federation would not be a problem.

Decades ago, when the Liangxia Empire was first established, with its not-so-strong national power, it was able to fight all the way to the outskirts of Leaf Castle and force the Luosha Emperor to sign a humiliating treaty, ceding millions of square kilometers of territory. Now, with the world’s number one industrial strength, the largest national territory, the most populous nation, and decades of accumulated hatred, would the Liangxia Empire still fear defeat against the Luosha Federation?

What could the Luosha Federation gain from defeat before achieving ultimate victory?

The events that occurred in the Saiyi Imperial Kingdom have proven that modern warfare is exceedingly cruel; the defeated side loses not only the dignity surrendered at the signing of the surrender agreement.

Since there is nothing to gain, or rather no more substantial benefits, why would the Luosha Federation still betray?

At the time, Xue Yuanzheng did not provide an explanation, merely telling Bai Zhizhan that people are governed by emotions, and so are nations and ethnic groups composed of people.

Besides emotions, there are also interests that can affect emotions.

It was about half a month later that the Sixth Bureau got hold of intelligence related to the Luosha Federation’s betrayal.

To say, apart from the emotions decided by individuals, the price offered by the Newland Federation and the Bulan Kingdom did indeed possess an irresistible allure for anyone.

Firstly, it was about abolishing all the unequal treaties that were forced upon Luosha after the Atai Battle.

This alone would mean returning over 6 million square kilometers of land east of Yenisei-Balkhash and about 1.5 million square kilometers in the central part of the Giant Continent in entirety to Luosha Federation, and the nation’s territory would thus expand to 15 million square kilometers.

Secondly, they would acknowledge the Luosha Federation’s claim to sovereignty over the vassal states during the imperial era.

All the countries that split from the Luosha Empire at the later stages of the last great war would be reintegrated into the territory of the Luosha Federation.

This way, the Luosha Federation would gain an additional approximately 2 million square kilometers of territory and 40 million people.

Crucially, most of the added population is on the West Continent.

With these lands and people, especially the people, the Luosha Federation would become the undisputed dominant power on the West Continent!

The Newland Federation also unilaterally promised that, after the war ended, they would return the Alas Region, which was occupied during the latter stages of the Liang-Luo War, back to the Luosha Federation.

This is 1.7 million square kilometers of land in the northwest of the Gu Continent!

Moreover, there is a key point: the ownership of the Alas Region has always been controversial, not only claimed by the Luosha Federation but the Liangxia Empire also claims sovereignty over the region.

Even before the Atai Battle, which was after the outbreak of war with the Liangxia Empire, the Luosha Empire had planned to sell the Alas Region, which was definitely indefensible. The sale would fill the vast deficit caused by the war, and at the same time, it would save the costs of maintaining the troops stationed there. At that time, only the Newland Federation expressed the willingness to buy it, but before the deal was concluded, the Luosha Empire was defeated.

By rights, the Alas region also lies to the east of Yenisei-Balkhash, so according to the treaty signed by both parties, it should belong to the Liangxia Empire.

Indeed, if this were the case, the Liangxia Empire would become the only country that possessed territories on both the Giant Continent and the Gu Continent.

Unfortunately, before the Liangxia Empire and the Luosha Empire signed the armistice treaty, to be precise, before the legislative bodies of both sides ratified the armistice treaty, the Newland Federation swiftly sent troops to attack and take control of the Alas region and also swept through the islands of the North East Ocean, completing their occupation.

By the time the Liangxia Empire had reacted, the deed was already done and irreversible.

The crux of the matter was that, at that time, the Liangxia Empire was not strong enough, its Navy had not yet developed, and it didn’t have the capability to project power overseas, let alone defeat the well-rested Newland Army.

Among the Great Powers, there was no reasoning—only the question of who had the bigger fist.

Besides, the war with the Luosha Empire had just ended, and the Liangxia Empire couldn’t immediately launch into another war.

Under the circumstances at the time, it wasn’t very realistic to let the matter drop.

To put it bluntly, if the Liangxia Empire swallowed this bitter pill, then the victory achieved after more than a decade of hard fighting would be dimmed.

Temporarily, both sides were on tenterhooks.

After a deadlock of several months, each side gave a little ground.

The Newland Federation paid for the Alas region, with the price tag being twice that of the initial negotiations with the Luosha Empire.

In total, 15 million Newland Dollars.

Given the prices at the time, this counted as a substantial sum.

In fact, the Liangxia Empire, fresh from the hardships of war, needed this large amount of money.

It’s just that the Newland Federation paid the money to the Luosha Empire, which then compensated the Liangxia Empire as reparations for not being able to completely fulfill the terms of the armistice treaty.

From a retrospective point of view, these 15 million Newland Dollars were irreplaceable in value during the initial phase of the Liangxia Empire’s industrial construction.

The key point was that Newland Dollars could be directly used to purchase industrial equipment from other Great Powers.

However, the Newland Federation made a request.

This was the previously mentioned commitment that the Liangxia Empire would not engage in modern development and construction in the Extreme North and Extreme East regions, namely the Far East region taken from the Luosha Empire, for a period of 99 years, until New Calendar year 152, which would be 99 years after the outbreak of the Liang-Luo War.

The Newland Federation also promised that after New Calendar year 152, the residents of the Alas region would be free to determine their own fate.

That is to say, local residents would vote to decide whether to continue staying under the Newland Federation or return to the Liangxia Empire.

Of course, at the time, this promise seemed meaningless.

All in all, the Alas region thus fell into the hands of the Newland Federation.

Now, the Newland Federation unilaterally made a commitment that was not only very enticing but also clearly expressed its sincerity to form an alliance with the Luosha Federation.

The Bulan Kingdom likewise showed its sincerity.

After the war, not only would the Bulan Kingdom withdraw its troops from Boi Country, asking only that the Luosha Federation promise not to annex this formerly dependent nation and grant it independent status, but it also agreed to give the Luosha Federation an exclave on the eastern coast of the Land Heart Sea, namely in the Ter Republic or the southern Xuya Region.

Of course, the latter was more likely.

The key point was that after the last great war, the region had become an overseas territory of the Locke Republic, which had since been defeated by the Tiaoman Empire.

Being generous with something that belonged to someone else naturally presented no difficulty.

The astonishing offers put forth by the Newland Federation and the Bulan Kingdom would be surprising if they didn’t tempt the Luosha Federation!

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