Empire Conquest-Chapter 744 - 45: Active Evacuation_2

Of course, the root cause was the change in the international balance of power.

During the eight-year grueling war that followed, the Empire faced not only Boi Country but also the Newland Republic.

From this perspective, even if the Empire hadn’t suffered setbacks in Boi Country, it would have faced a disastrous defeat in other places, such as Mexico, which is closer to the Newland Republic.

Simply put, with the rapid rise of the Newland Republic as the third global power, the Empire’s strategic expansion had reached its limit.

From strategic expansion to strategic contraction was inevitable.

Fundamentally, the decline after reaching the peak is an inevitable end for any strong empire.

As long as the competition among the Great Powers still existed, and as long as the Empire could not maintain the strongest development momentum, the balance of power with other Great Powers would inevitably change. When the Empire’s advantages diminished, it necessarily had to shift from expansion to contraction and had even to give up some interests.

Clearly, this was not due to any incompetence on the part of the Grand Secretary.

Objectively speaking, in the later stages of the Boi War, Lian Xusheng’s decision to retreat helped preserve the capital for revival and laid the foundation for re-emergence a decade later.

The key point is this:

In the later stages of the Boi War, if a civilian Grand Secretary had been in place, they absolutely could not have restrained the military leaders and made them genuinely accept the withdrawal decision.

Given the situation at that time, switching to a civilian Grand Secretary could even have likely led to a military coup.

The reason is simple; Imperial Army had fought ardently in Boi Country for eight years, involving several hundred thousand troops, with more than fifty thousand soldiers killed or missing.

To just withdraw like that?

After all, the Imperial Army had not lost a battle after the war!

At that time, only someone like Lian Xusheng, who held absolute prestige and control over the military, could manage the situation.

Even for Lian Xusheng, it took a full two years of preparation before the withdrawal operation was executed.

If at that time, the Empire had not withdrawn from Boi Country but continued to fight, it probably wouldn’t have taken many years before the Empire would have commenced internal chaos and lost its hegemonic status.

Throughout history, mighty empires have always collapsed from within!

From this perspective, Lian Xusheng’s decisions in the later stages of the Boi War were not only correct but also extremely wise.

As for the initial decision to go to war, it was actually a choiceless choice.

Apart from no one anticipating a disastrous defeat, it was also significantly related to the international situation at that time.

When the Empire decided to send troops into battle, more than 20 years had passed since the end of the second Global War, and international tensions had become extremely sharp.

In fact, the outbreak of the independent war in the Boi region was itself a result of the intensifying international situation.

To a great extent, this war that lasted for over a decade can be seen as a release of the post-war tension.

If the Empire had directly abandoned the Ter Republic and allowed Boi Country to become independent, it would soon have become involved in another conflict, such as the ongoing New-Mo Border conflict at that time. If the Empire were entangled in the conflict in the Beigu Region, it would inevitably trigger the third Global War.

According to classified information revealed later, before deploying troops to the Boi region, the Imperial Military had already drafted plans to help Mexico reclaim Southern California, New Mexico, and Arizona, and the ultimate goal was to dismember Newland into several countries!

However, the problem was that the Empire’s military strength at that time was insufficient to accomplish this feat.

It was at this time, upon returning to the Prime Minister Mansion, Lian Xusheng promptly approved the deployment of troops to the Boi region, which meant officially joining the Boi War.

From this angle, it was actually Lian Xusheng who saved the Empire!

Clearly, under the current "big picture," the little Scapa Bay doesn’t count for much.

Upon boarding the "Wuzhou" cruiser, Li Shenzhi did not go to the Command Bridge but stayed on the foredeck.

As the cruiser slowly left the dock, he raised his right hand and gave a standard military salute to the dock where personnel were seeing him off, also the last batch of officers and soldiers who were staying behind.

The great war had not erupted yet, so the Navy had not announced any withdrawal from the Scapa Naval Base.

Moreover, these remaining officers and soldiers bore a sacred mission.

After the great war erupted, they were to destroy the naval base, specifically to destroy all the infrastructure inside the base and use naval mines to seal off the Military Port.

To put it bluntly, if the Navy couldn’t use it, others shouldn’t either!

To this end, over the past half month, fleet personnel had already placed thousands of naval mines in the bay, all of which were smart mines.

Once the safety was disengaged, these mines would turn Scapa Bay into a dead pond!

Additionally, explosives were placed in every building, or rather, preparations for a controlled demolition were made.

At that time, just a single command would be needed to detonate these explosives and destroy all the infrastructure that couldn’t be taken away but could be used by the enemy!

These dozens of officers and soldiers had all volunteered to remain behind, but there was no need to worry for them.

The "Wuzhou" was simply the last surface warship to evacuate.

Outside in the ocean, in the deep waters to the south, was a submarine of the Imperial Navy, on standby, and it was only half-crewed.

If the great war erupted, the officers and soldiers left behind, after destroying the Scapa Bay, would reach the submarine to return to the Empire.

Indeed, among those remaining officers and soldiers, except for a few Marine Corps demolition experts, the rest were all submarine troops.

Of course, whether they could return directly to the Empire was another matter.