Empire Conquest-Chapter 708 - 28 Fanning the Flames_2

Moreover, the quality of the people’s lives was becoming increasingly worse.

Following this trend, the West Continent Alliance was bound to crumble.

Perhaps, the Tiaoman Empire wouldn’t be doomed by this turmoil, but without the West Continent Alliance, the Tiaoman Empire would also lose its qualifications for supremacy.

By its own strength, the Tiaoman Empire could at best be considered a second-rate power.

After the fall of the West Continent Alliance, the grand endeavor of unifying the West Continent and Western civilization would certainly come to an abrupt halt, and then the many second- and third-rate countries on the West Continent would become tools in the hands of the superpowers, and the Tiaoman Empire, as the leading power on the West Continent, wouldn’t likely remain unscathed.

This was not fear-mongering!

If the West Continent Alliance fell apart, then the countries to the west of the West Continent, namely the Bulan Kingdom, the Locke Kingdom, the Sban Kingdom, and the Raleigh Kingdom, would all lean towards the Newland Republic, at the very least seeking an alliance with the Newland Republic. The countries to the east would become vassals of the Liangxia Empire.

At that time, where would the Tiaoman Empire, caught in the middle, go?

To put it bluntly, should war break out again on the West Continent, the first to be unlucky would undoubtedly be the Tiaoman Empire.

Should the flames of war spread, the losses would also inevitably be the most devastating for the Tiaoman Empire.

To put it harshly, if the West Continent were ultimately controlled by other superpowers, the Tiaoman Empire could very likely be dismembered before the end of the great war.

The reason is simple, no superpower capable of controlling the West Continent would leave a powerful native country like the Tiaoman Empire intact.

If the Tiaoman Empire couldn’t be eliminated, the only option would be to divide it like the Luosha Federation was previously dealt with.

It was clear that the Tiaoman Empire’s fate was closely linked to that of the West Continent Alliance.

Using Herbert’s words, even knowing that starting a war now would certainly mean defeat against the Liangxia Empire, the Tiaoman Authority wouldn’t just sit and wait for doom, because in a few years, after the collapse of the West Continent Alliance, not only would the Tiaoman Empire fall spectacularly, but there would also be no opportunity to wage war.

With this in mind, it was impossible to prevent the outbreak of the Third Global War.

Delaying it by five years would be nothing but a fool’s dream.

This conclusion was one that Herbert was reluctant to accept, yet he had to.

Herbert also considered stabilizing the Tiaoman Empire by transfusing the West Continent Alliance, but eventually, he gave up this somewhat naive idea.

To begin with, the Congress would definitely not approve any foreign aid plan without seeking something in return.

Furthermore, the Tiaoman Authority might not be willing to accept assistance from the Newland Republic, because, while receiving aid, an equivalent price must be paid, and once the influence of the Newland Republic penetrated, the member countries of the West Continent Alliance might not follow the command of the Tiaoman Empire.

The Tiaoman Empire’s unwillingness to compromise was precisely to maintain the independence of the West Continent Alliance, more accurately, its hegemonic status within the Alliance.

And finally, the Liangxia Empire would absolutely not pretend to look away.

Judging from the series of strategies implemented by the Liangxia Empire, the bottom line was to keep the Newland Republic outside of the World Island, to absolutely not allow the Newland Republic to form an official alliance with the Tiaoman Empire.

The rationale was simple, an alliance between two superpowers would immediately disrupt the strategic balance.

Even if the combined power of the two superpowers merely equaled that of the Liangxia Empire and held no advantage, they could still pose a threat to the Liangxia Empire from two directions.

This meant that, from the start, the Liangxia Empire would have to fight on two fronts!

Even the most powerful empire could not withstand the turmoil of war on two fronts.

Unless willing to surrender the crown of the world’s leading superpower, the Liangxia Empire would inevitably take action at this time.

From a strategical standpoint, one possible outcome of the war would likely be the dismembering of the West Continent Alliance.

In summary, with the strategic potential of the West Continent Alliance, led by the Tiaoman Empire, completely exhausted and no longer sustainable, the Global War was now unavoidable.

If the Newland Republic didn’t join the war immediately, it would have almost no chance of success.

The key issue was that the military strength gap was simply too vast.

Take the critically important navy for example, the Newland Republic had only four carriers in total, three of which were medium-sized carriers equipped with Vertical Takeoff and Landing Fighters and helicopters, primarily responsible for escorting transport convoys, much like the escort aircraft carriers massively built during the time of the Second World War. The other one was also just a 60,000-ton large carrier, although equipped with catapults, its overall combat capability was at best comparable to that of the Liangxia Empire’s "Chen Bingxun" class, unable to compare with the "Xue Yuanzheng" class, that is, the 100,000-ton Super Carrier.

Of course, the naval gap was continuously closing.

In the shipyards of Newland, there were now three large carriers under construction, and the design of the new generation Super Carrier had been completed, with the first two expected to commence work this year, and plans to add three more next year, striving to expand the fleet to nine large carriers and Super Carriers within three years.

If we’re talking requirements, this is the minimum challenge to the Liangxia Navy.

According to intelligence provided by the CIA, if the Liangxia Empire speeds up and expands its carrier construction, it could potentially increase its number of carriers to 15 within three years, deploying nine of them in the East Ocean, targeting the expanded Newland Navy to achieve a relative troop advantage.

However, this doesn’t take into account the dozen or so large carriers mothballed by the Liangxia Navy!

If war were to break out, and the Liangxia Navy recommissioned these mothballed carriers, they could instantly double their carrier numbers, expanding the fleet in the East Ocean to over 20.

That number represents a crushing advantage!

Thus, even three years from now, the situation for the Newland Navy might not drastically improve, at best, they could say they have the capital to have a showdown with the Liangxia Navy.

Then, what could be done to provide the Newland Republic with more time?

Put another way, how could the Newland Republic delay its entry into the war by a few years to have more time to build its navy?

Clearly, this was Herbert’s primary concern.

In the past few months, after secret contacts with the Tiaoman Authority, Herbert had called over a dozen meetings to discuss this issue.

Regrettably, up to now, not many feasible strategies have emerged.

First and foremost, after the outbreak of war, the key is to stay as neutral as possible, not to engage in the initial stages, and certainly not providing any cause for the Liangxia Empire to declare war.

Next, it was imperative to support the Tiaoman Empire and the West Continent coalition as much as possible, to wear down the Liangxia Empire’s war capabilities.

To use Karen’s words, let the two empires fight each other until both sides are exhausted.

Of course, that’s easier said than done.

If it were 30 years ago, there might be a fighting chance.

After a 30-year marathon, the Tiaoman Empire had been left behind, the West Continent coalition was also fraught with contradictions, a real fight would likely lead to their own disarray.

The last resort would be to make the Liangxia Empire fight on two fronts without directly engaging in combat.

If possible, additional fronts should be opened to stretch their forces even thinner.

Indeed, this was the issue that, despite over a dozen meetings, had yet to be resolved.

Simply put, the question was where it would be most suitable to open a second front.

There were three main options: the Bulan Kingdom, Aus, and the Southern Subcontinent.

The Bulan Kingdom was the simplest case, after all, the Bulan Kingdom shared a culture and close relations with the Newland Republic, and its citizens had long been unwilling to submit to the Liangxia Empire; hence, a call to arms from the Newland Republic would certainly incite an uprising in the Bulan Kingdom.

However, the impact from the Bulan Kingdom was very limited, in that the Liangxia Empire could completely abandon Scapa Bay with minimal strategic loss.

Aus posed greater difficulty, but also held greater significance.

The reason is simple: following the last great war, the Liangxia Empire had been continuously migrating people to Aus to strengthen control over the continent.

The crux was that Aus had always been a major resource base for the Liangxia Empire, such as iron and copper ores.

Because Liangxia immigrants already exceeded 10 million, nearly 30% of the Aus population, any involvement in Aus might not be effective enough to force the Liangxia Empire to deploy troops. Mobilizing local Liangxia immigrants to control Aus’s armed forces would be sufficient to stabilize the situation.

That left only the Southern Subcontinent, the renowned Fanluo region.

The Fanluo region had a population of about 600 million, including over 400 million in Fanluo Country alone, with another 100 million plus in Bakistan.

Crucially, the Subcontinent was the Liangxia Empire’s backyard!

If war broke out in the Fanluo region, the Liangxia Empire would undoubtedly send troops.

However, inciting chaos in the Fanluo region was extremely challenging.

Bakistan had long allied with the Liangxia Empire, and the leaders of Fanluo Country were no fools; without sufficient benefit, they would not run risks for the Newland Republic or the Tiaoman Empire.

So, what could be done to make Fanluo Country take a stand?