Empire Conquest

Chapter 627 - 623: The World in Great Chaos

At this point, Bai Zhizhan had his first question.

Could Rofuss’s death be related to Chur?

However, no answer was provided in the telegrams from the Navy headquarters.

When the Special Service agents took Rofuss to the hospital, Chur had already left the Grey Palace and had left Huacheng that very night, or gone into hiding.

According to the Sixth Bureau’s speculation, he might soon go to the Maple Country.

However, it was also possible that he would stay in the Newland Federation.

Here lay another issue, and it was the most important one.

According to the laws of the Newland Federation, after the President’s demise, the Vice President assumes the position, and upon being sworn in, appoints a new Vice President.

Even without confirmation, there was also the Speaker of the House of Representatives.

In short, the sudden loss of the President would not leave the Kingdom headless.

But, this was where the problem lay.

The Vice President of the Newland Federation, Wallace, was famously moderate.

Initially, when Rofuss ran for election for the third time, he chose Wallace as his partner to gain the support of the moderates.

Clearly, at that time, Rofuss certainly did not expect to die of a stroke.

The issue lay right here.

Whether it was before or after the participation in the war, Wallace was firmly opposed to getting involved in this war that was not directly related to the interests of the Newland Federation.

In his words, with two vast oceans as barriers, the war between the East and the West had nothing to do with the people of Newland.

Obviously, this view had a large market within Newland.

For most isolationists, the Newland Federation only needed to maintain a sufficiently strong Navy to be independent of the world.

Of course, they could also profit greatly from the war.

This was the crux of the matter.

Before the outbreak of the great war, the Newland Federation was the world’s largest exporter, even surpassing the shares of the Liangxia Empire in the export market, and by dumping excess goods, they reaped sizeable profits, enabling thousands of Newlanders to live comfortably.

After the breakout of the great war, this was even more the case.

Not to mention anything else, just in the first half a year, the Newland Federation profited nearly 1 billion Newland Dollars from selling farm products such as corn, flour, and potatoes.

What did this represent?

Before the outbreak of the war, the annual export total of the Newland Federation’s agricultural products didn’t even reach 1 billion Newland Dollars!

Due to competition, and in order to hit competitors with dumping, prices of agricultural products were very low on the international market in the years following the Great Depression.

It was considered fortunate just to avoid losses, let alone make a profit.

In the year 96 of the New Calendar, the total export of the Newland Federation’s agricultural products was only 674 million Newland Dollars, with virtually no profit!

Even more crucially, agricultural products played a minor role in trade.

The year before the Newland Federation entered the war, the total export of industrial products exceeded 20 billion Newland Dollars, with profits reaching several billion.

Before, many factories on the brink of closure found new life after receiving orders from the Bulan Kingdom, the Saiyi Imperial Kingdom, and the Luosha Federation, saving jobs for thousands of workers who faced unemployment threats; the additional 3 million job positions led the Newland Federation to prosperity.

As the outside world put it, it wasn’t Rofuss’s New Deal that saved the Newland Federation, but the rekindled flames of war!

Without this great war, without the vast consumption it caused, Rofuss’s New Deal would inevitably run out of steam in at most two or three years.

From another perspective, Rofuss advocated for entering the war to protect the war dividends that had already been obtained.

Of course, one could also say that it was to make the flames of war burn even more fiercely!

This is precisely why isolationism was able to garner widespread support within the Newland Federation.

At least before they joined the war, nearly all Newlanders believed that it would take only two to three years for the Newland Federation’s industrial scale to surpass that of the Liangxia Empire.

Of course, this was also why Rofuss had to team up with Wallace.

Given the circumstances at the time, if Rofuss had chosen Ghana, his partner for the past two terms, or the newly rising political star Truman, he would not have been able to win the third election easily and happily; he might even have lost due to internal splits within the Democracy Party.

Of course, it would definitely have taken more effort.

With the war already erupted, it was obviously not possible for Rofuss to focus too much energy on the election.

However, after successfully winning the election, Rofuss did what any politician would do, pushing his politically opposed running mate out of the core decision-making circle.

Over the past two years, Wallace’s main job was to replace Rofuss in traveling across the country for war fundraising publicity work.

This was certainly much better than staying in Huacheng.

Actually, Wallace’s experience had already caused strong dissatisfaction among the conservative wing within the Democracy Party, who thus accused Rofuss of crossing the river and demolishing the bridge.

Under the state of war, they could only express their dissatisfaction verbally.

When Rofuss suddenly died of illness, Wallace was on the other side of Newland, in Denver nicknamed "West Capital," attending a political rally.

According to the previous arrangement, he was next scheduled to visit the Navy Shipyards in Gold Bay and Angel City.

It was at this juncture that an accident occurred.

At that time, the staff at the Grey Palace, perhaps due to being overly flustered, did not remember to contact Wallace, who was still in Denver but about to depart for Gold Bay.

Actually, we cannot blame the Grey Palace staff.

The Special Service Bureau did not announce Rofuss’s death immediately; instead, under the management of Secretary of State Hale, they temporarily sealed off the news.

That is to say, the staff at the Grey Palace did not know that the President had passed away and believed that the President was just seriously ill.

Frankly, the problem lay with Hale.

After dawn, Wallace boarded the plane flying to Gold Bay, and only after his arrival there was the news of Rofuss’s death spread.

Now, the problem became very serious.

At that time, Hale was the one in power in Huacheng.

Without a doubt, this guy was a typical member of the War faction and had a good private relationship with Chur, having represented Rofuss on multiple visits to the Bulan Kingdom.

It should be said that it had always been Hale who was in charge of diplomatic affairs with the Bulan Kingdom.

The Newland Federation did not have a foreign minister, the Secretary of State doubled as the overseer of diplomacy, so the diplomatic work with the Bulan Kingdom could also be seen as Hale’s own duty.

And most importantly, Hale had worked with Rofuss for ten years, having been Secretary of State for a decade!

Even if it was never his turn to succeed the presidential throne, given his understanding of Rofuss, he would definitely not allow Wallace to return to Huacheng and take charge.

In his view, the first thing Wallace would do after coming into power would be to order the military to stop all operations.

Besides, Wallace would have doubts.

Do not forget that the State Department and the Special Service Bureau did not announce the President’s passing immediately.

Of course, the Special Service Bureau itself is under the State Department, and the Director of the Bureau is appointed by the Secretary of State.

Is it possible that Hale deliberately concealed the news of Rofuss’s death, and did so to eliminate a political rival, in order to have the Speaker of the House of Representatives, who doesn’t have much sense of his own, take the stage?

Moreover, the Speaker of the House had always been removed from the core decision-making circle, completely unaware of the current situation, and upon moving into the Grey Palace, would inevitably rely on the Secretary of State for everything.

In this way, Hale would become the actual ruler of the Newland Federation.

Furthermore, the key members of the Democracy Party in Huacheng were almost all Rofuss’s people, and many of them belonged to the War faction; they would likewise not accept Wallace’s leadership.

Given all this, would Wallace return to Huacheng?