Empire Conquest-Chapter 707 - 28 Fanning the Flames

Stabilize the Tiaoman Empire?

This was almost an impossible task!

The meeting didn’t continue until Colin returned.

The most critical issue was actually whether they could stabilize the Tiaoman Empire.

However, including Herbert, no one held any hope, not even a sliver of illusion!

It wasn’t that the Tiaoman Authority wasn’t willing to endure a period of time for the sake of victory in the great war, but rather, as Norman mentioned, five years was just too long.

During secret contacts before, Tiaoman envoys had always emphasized that as long as the Liangxia Empire intervened militarily in Iraq, the Tiaoman Empire would not stand idly by and would definitely take action when necessary to ensure that its core interests in the Boss Bay region would not be damaged.

Subsequently, intelligence provided by the CIA proved that what the Tiaoman envoy had said was true.

The key was not Iraq’s annexation of Kuwait, but rather the internal contradictions of the Tiaoman Empire and the Western Group had become so severe that they were uncontrollable.

Just in the first half of this year, the retail prices of various daily necessities, including food, had skyrocketed by 35% in the Tiaoman Empire, and even more in other countries of the Western Group. Even traditional grain-producing countries like the Locke Kingdom and the Raleigh Kingdom saw food prices rise by more than 20%. The resulting social issues had already severely threatened the internal stability of the Western Group.

As for the reasons, besides the drought that started last year and affected the entire Northern Hemisphere, operations by the Liangxia Empire were also to blame.

The Western Group, led by the Tiaoman Empire, had always been pure importers of grain, so food prices were greatly affected by the international market.

Of course, this was also closely related to economic imbalance.

To maintain military strength, member states of the Western Group had always focused on heavy industry and clearly lacked investment in the light industry sector that was tied to the public’s everyday life.

This triggered not only an internal economic crisis but also posed a grave threat to the Western Group’s unity and stability.

This issue was most evident in the Luosha Democratic Republic.

In the first half of the year alone, about 100,000 citizens of the Luosha Democratic Republic applied to go to East Mosa, which was under the control of the Liangxia army, for reasons such as family visits and work. By the end of June, the number of those who had overstayed had reached a record high of 5.5 million.

In addition, the Lusha Federation Republic specifically established a department to provide training for immigrants, allowing them to integrate into the local society through employment.

The related propaganda, much like the monsoons from the south, had long been widespread in the Luosha Democratic Republic.

In pursuit of employment opportunities and a better life, tens of thousands of citizens from West Luosha flocked to Mosa City, trying every means to get to East Mosa.

Affected by this, the Luosha Democratic Republic was forced to announce the temporary closure of border posts last month.

Following this policy, there was an immediate strong public opposition.

The root cause of this phenomenon was actually the Western Group’s economic problems, and they were severe.

Inside the Luosha Democratic Republic, calls for reunification had emerged, and more and more citizens supported reunification with the Lusha Federation Republic.

The key difference was that the Lusha Federation Republic also had the will to reunify.

However, the Lusha Federation Republic, with the support of the Liangxia Empire, preferred to achieve reunification by annexing the Luosha Democratic Republic.

Accepting "immigrants" from the Luosha Democratic Republic, to a large extent, was a strategy taken by the Lusha Federation Republic with the permission of the Liangxia Empire, to exacerbate the internal conflict between the Luosha Democratic Republic and the Western Group.

Last year, the Luosha Democratic Republic arrested hundreds of citizens from the Lusha Federation Republic on charges of espionage and expelled them from the country.

Unfortunately, these measures were counterproductive.

No matter how strict the policies, they couldn’t change the fact that West Luosha and East Luosha were originally one country, and the people of Luosha on both sides of the border were of the same ethnicity.

All of these problems were fundamentally related to development.

The Lusha Federation Republic, originally in worse condition, had surpassed the Luosha Democratic Republic in all aspects after more than 40 years of development.

According to non-official organization statistics, the population of the Lusha Federation Republic had exceeded 80 million, with a GDP over 1 trillion Gold Yuan, ranking seventh globally. In addition, it had established an industrial system centered around oil extraction and chemical processing, non-ferrous metal processing, and machinery manufacturing.

Among the Eastern Group, the comprehensive strength of the Lusha Federation Republic ranked fourth, only behind the Liangxia Empire, the Saiyi Imperial Kingdom, and the Gaoju Kingdom.

In terms of industrialization, the Lusha Federation Republic was already not inferior to the Tiaoman Empire.

The trouble was, the Luosha Democratic Republic was on the decline!

To date, the population of the Luosha Democratic Republic was only 80 million, with an official GDP of less than 2 trillion Gold Marks, which was about 700 billion Gold Yuan. Despite having the capability to produce tanks and fighters, and the necessary industrial system, its industry was seriously insufficient, and it relied heavily on the Tiaoman Empire or imports from other members of the Western Group in many key areas.

In fact, this was also the most dissatisfactory aspect for the population of the Luosha Democratic Republic.

After decades of development, the Luosha Democratic Republic was actually regressing, not only being caught up by the Lusha Federation Republic but also having its economic lifeline controlled by the Tiaoman Empire.