Empire Conquest

Chapter 603 - 599 Unsolvable Contradiction

Bai Zhizhan was not a politician, but he participated throughout the strategic planning process and had a profound and comprehensive understanding of the Imperial Authority’s plans.

Fundamentally, the attitude of the Imperial Authority towards the Tiaoman Empire had always been lukewarm.

The reasons for this pertained to the post-war global structure.

As mentioned earlier, from Xue Yuanzheng downwards, the Imperial High Command had long realized that it was absolutely crucial not to let a new adversary arise after defeating the formidable enemies of the Consortium Group. The post-war world could only accommodate one superpower; otherwise, the victory obtained would lose its luster.

If victory had not been achieved, there would be no need to consider this issue.

However, if comprehensive victory had been secured, then the only entity capable of posing a threat to the Empire, or rather, having the competence to compete with the Empire on a global scale, would be the Tiaoman Empire.

It was this consideration that determined the Imperial decision-makers’ approach to the Tiaoman Empire.

While cooperating, it was necessary to strengthen limitations on the Tiaoman Empire, ensuring its strength never reached the level of a superpower.

The most representative example was the technological cooperation related to the Navy.

After dragging their feet for more than two years, the Imperial Authority finally compromised and agreed to help the Tiaoman Empire build fleet carriers through technological assistance.

Given the industrial strength of the Tiaoman Empire, they could certainly build carriers.

Let’s not forget that the Tiaoman shipyards could build 50,000-ton battleships, so constructing 20,000-ton fleet carriers was certainly within their capabilities.

The reluctance to provide the Tiaoman Empire with the relevant technology to build carriers was due to the expanding nature of naval forces.

Even now, the agreement to help the Tiaoman Empire construct carriers was for a downgraded version, such as one without high-powered hydraulic catapults.

The same was true for combat aircraft, especially heavy bombers.

To date, the Empire had not provided the Tiaoman Empire with the technology to build heavy bombers, particularly the process for manufacturing large structural components.

Such directly industrial-employment technologies were mainly used to create load-bearing structures for the bombers’ airframes.

The limitations on the Tiaoman Empire extended beyond technology.

The same went for resources.

By sending a large force to occupy Boss Bay and controlling Jibu Fortress and Alexandria, effectively commandeering the sea trade routes, the Empire strategically maneuvered over the most vital resources.

Of course, these weren’t all.

Over the past year, the Empire had continually refrained from launching a decisive offensive in the hinterlands of the Giant Continent, at least not using its full force, and this strategy was largely related to targeting the Tiaoman Empire. Fundamentally, it was about preventing the Tiaoman Empire from gaining the initiative in the war facing the Luosha Federation, from launching a strategic offensive after gaining an advantage, and from obtaining oil fields that could replace those of Boss Bay.

On the western shore of the Mo Sea in the eastern part of the West Continent, Romania possessed a large oil field.

Although Romania’s oil field production did not match that of Baku, let alone Boss Bay, it was not insignificant, enough to keep the Tiaoman war machine running normally.

In other words, after taking Romania, the Tiaoman Empire’s need for imported oil would decrease significantly.

With an ample supply of oil, the Tiaoman Army might be able to launch an offensive on the eastern front of the West Continent, perhaps even capturing Baku!

In fact, after the outbreak of the war, or to be precise, after holding off the Luosha Army’s offensive, the Tiaoman forces had been striving to advance towards Romania. Their subsequent reprisals targeted the Romanian oil fields. Unfortunately, the Luosha Federation also focused on this area.

To this day, Romania remains under the control of the Luosha Army, while the Tiaoman Army is still hundreds of kilometres away!

Moreover, on the eastern front of the West Continent, the Tiaoman forces were generally in a defensive position, and even the few reprisals launched did not alter the overall situation.

It was precisely because they did not take the initiative that the forces they committed to the Reprisal were insufficient, resulting in the operation ending fruitlessly.

Of course, this had a lot to do with multi-front combat as well.

As Lian Xusheng put it, when surrounded and attacked by the enemy, you must fight on at least three fronts. The Tiaoman Empire managing to hold their ground was already quite remarkable.

As for the fight against the Bulan Kingdom, it was essentially the same.

The aid provided by the Empire could at most help the Tiaoman Air Force withstand strategic bombing, and through Reprisals, weaken the enemy’s offensive power.

The strategic bombing of the Bulan Kingdom continued, always due to insufficient commitment, never achieving tangible results.

It was apparent that the Imperial Authority was consistently striving to limit the Tiaoman Empire’s growth and expansion in the war.

So, could the Tiaoman Empire still be made the main force in attacking the Newland Federation?

This was also the biggest problem with Xue Yuanzheng’s strategy of "total victory."

To achieve total victory, it was necessary to elevate the Tiaoman Empire’s contributions within the Consortium Group, inevitably enabling the Tiaoman Empire to grow and expand during the great war.

To prevent the Tiaoman Empire from becoming the next superpower, posing a challenge to the Imperial post-war hegemonic status, it was essential to limit the Tiaoman Empire’s position within the Consortium Group, and even find ways to weaken it, making it hard to achieve total victory within an acceptable range.

To put it more seriously, this contradiction was fundamentally unsolvable.

The reason was simple, the Empire was not yet powerful enough to contain the Tiaoman Empire while at the same time muster sufficient troops and resources to defeat the Newland Federation.

According to pre-war military simulations, if it was a single confrontation with the Newland Federation, the Tiaoman Empire would emerge as the top victor.

As the saying goes when the snipe and the clam grapple, it’s the fisherman who profits. Everyone understands this principle.

This was also the primary reason the Conciliation Faction opposed Xue Yuanzheng.

Under the current situation, the Empire simply could not suppress both the Tiaoman and Newland Federations, necessitating a choice between the two.

Clearly, the Conciliation Faction chose to compromise with the Newland Federation.

According to the theory propagated by the Conciliation Faction, after defeating traditional Great Powers like the Bulan Kingdom and Luosha Federation, at the very least, peaceful coexistence with emerging industrial nations was possible, and during the redistribution of benefits, these new industrial powers would be more willing to sit down and develop together rather than fighting to the end.

The "emerging industrial powers" mentioned here mainly refer to the Newland Federation and the Tiaoman Empire.

In addition, the Saiyi Imperial Kingdom could also be counted among them.

Of course, the Conciliation Faction did not mention that the world is only so large; not even two superpowers could coexist, let alone three.

Even if both sides were willing to compromise, it would only be a temporary peace.

For this reason, Xue Yuanzheng firmly opposed compromise and was not willing to cooperate with the Conciliation Faction.

However, this did not solve the most fundamental problem.

Regardless of Xue Yuanzheng’s personal wishes, with the current strength of the Empire, it was impossible to suppress the Tiaoman Empire while defeating the Newland Federation, let alone to dominate the globe and have all countries recognize the Empire as the sole superpower after defeating the Newland Federation.

Bai Zhizhan was fully aware of this.

Although Xue Yuanzheng was unwilling to compromise with the Conciliation Faction and continuously strived toward the goal of total victory, in the end, he might still have to bow to reality.

As a resolute commander, Xue Yuanzheng would not joke with the lives of millions, even tens of millions, of Imperial soldiers and citizens.

However, when to compromise was a matter of learning, and could even be considered a profound art.