Empire Conquest
Chapter 68 - 64 Gathering of Heroes

Chapter 68: Chapter 64 Gathering of Heroes

December 25th, in the early morning, within the central waters of the Flame Sea.

Under the illumination of the dawn, a battleship with a spectacular superstructure was cutting through the waves at a rapid pace toward the west. Not far away, a light cruiser blew its whistle. Further out at sea was another imposing battleship, the sister ship of the Fleet’s flagship "Damen," named "Luo" and belonging to the First Battle Division. Scattered nearby were dozens of cruisers and destroyers.

Indeed, this was a part of the main battle corps of the Saiyi Imperial Navy’s permanent fleet.

It was still dark when Takano arrived at the corridor outside the Command Bridge.

In fact, he hadn’t slept at all that night.

It wasn’t just excitement, but also anxiety.

Over the past ten days, or more precisely the past few months, a series of significant events had swept away the international order established by the "Seba Peace Treaty" and the "Huacheng Treaty," pushing the world once again to the brink of a great war.

At the end of September, Takano had learned that the Liangxia Empire and the Luosha Federation were secretly plotting a war.

Could the Liangxia Empire and the Luosha Federation be planning to challenge the entire world together?

In reality, after the end of the last great war, specifically when the Bulan Kingdom and the Saiyi Imperial Kingdom formed an alliance, followed by the Newland Federation evolving into the "Second Alliance Group," the alliance between the Liangxia Empire and Luosha Federation had emerged, back to back challenging other Great Powers.

For that reason, this alliance formed by the two nations was nicknamed the "Continent Core Group."

It was from this time that the three allied nations began to target the Continent Core Group.

Three years ago, when determined to withdraw from the "Warren limits on naval armaments," the Saiyi Imperial Kingdom actively started contacting another group of continental nations, namely the Locke Republic and the Tiaoman Empire, forming the "Western Continent Axis Group" and exploring the possibility of forming an alliance.

Initially, the Saiyi Imperial Kingdom only hoped to use the Western Axis Group to offset and mitigate the negative impact of withdrawing from the Warren framework.

Unexpectedly, after the Saiyi Imperial Kingdom took the lead, the Alliance Group quickly came together with the Axis Group.

For the Alliance Group, the Liangxia Empire has always been viewed as their main adversary, given that it was the only nation capable of challenging the Alliance Group’s maritime supremacy worldwide. The Axis Group saw the Luosha Federation as a mortal enemy, given that the Luosha Federation’s vast army could pose a significant threat at any moment.

With a common enemy, everything was more negotiable.

Although the Alliance Group and the Axis Group did not merge together, due to many remaining differences, such as the Tiaoman Empire insisting that the International Alliance return the islands in the southwest of the East Ocean, entrusted to the Saiyi Imperial Kingdom after the great war, before signing any alliance treaty with the Saiyi Empire, essentially these two groups had already come together through a cross-alliance to become de facto allies.

Thus, the Liangxia Empire and the Luosha Federation stood against all the Great Powers and were surrounded by them.

War was undoubtedly inevitable. What mattered was how it would break out.

It was understandable for the Luosha Federation to actively seek favor from the Liangxia Empire, especially since the Tiaoman Empire and the Locke Republic had already allied to the west, posing a threat not to be ignored. Without reconciling with the Liangxia Empire, the Luosha Federation would face enemies on both sides, not to mention that the Tiaoman Empire and the Liangxia Empire were originally allies.

It didn’t make sense for the Liangxia Empire to lower its stature and ally with the Luosha Federation.

Don’t forget, even in its heyday, Luosha was never able to defeat the Liangxia Empire, and the threat it posed to the Liangxia Empire was minuscule. Moreover, the Luosha Federation championed anti-imperialism and anti-hegemony, encouraging the common people to become masters of their own destiny, clearly identifying all empires as enemies.

Alternatively, why wouldn’t the Liangxia Empire choose to continue its alliance with the Tiaoman Empire?

After stabilizing the situation with the Locke Republic, the Tiaoman Empire would be free of any strategic concerns from behind and could concentrate its forces to attack the Luosha Federation. In the next great war, the Liangxia Empire and the Tiaoman Empire, striking from both sides, could quickly annihilate the Luosha Federation, dominating both the Giant Continent and the West Continent naturally.

Additionally, the Tiaoman Navy could also hold the Bulan Navy and the Newland Navy in the Sunset Ocean, thus alleviating some of the Liangxia Empire’s concerns.

Clearly, no matter how one viewed it, the Liangxia Empire should continue its strategy of allying with the Tiaoman Empire, instead of engaging in clandestine dealings with the Luosha Federation.

Initially, Takano could not understand.

After observing for more than ten years, he reached a startling conclusion: the Liangxia Empire never intended to form an alliance with anyone.

No allies, taking on the whole world alone!?

If anyone had the courage, or rather the ability, it was the Liangxia Empire.

After twenty years of rapid and stable development, according to civilian agency estimates, the population of the Liangxia Empire very likely exceeded five hundred million.

What does that signify?

Not counting colonial populations, the total population of the top five Western powers wasn’t even that much.

The Newland Federation had less than two hundred million, the Tiaoman Empire about eighty million, the Saiyi Imperial Kingdom seventy million, the Locke Republic had fifty million, and the Bulan Kingdom had less than fifty million.

In total, that was only four hundred and fifty million.

Even adding the Luosha Federation, the total was still under six hundred million, only less than a hundred million more than the Liangxia Empire.

Moreover, the industrial capacity of the Liangxia Empire was the highest in the world.

Although there were no precise data, based on the main industrial output announced by the Imperial Authority, their level of industrial capacity had already surpassed eighty percent.

What does that mean?

Out of five hundred million people, four hundred million were involved in the industry.

The industrial capacity of the Saiyi Imperial Kingdom was less than fifty percent, the Luosha Federation was only slightly better, the Tiaoman Empire and Locke Republic were around sixty percent, Bulan Kingdom barely reached seventy percent, and the most rapidly developing Newland Federation was less than eighty percent.

This meant that the industrial population of the Liangxia Empire was greater than the combined total of the other six Great Powers!

This was reflected in the industrial output.

If the industrial output of the Liangxia Empire was taken as one hundred, the Newland Federation would be about sixty, both the Tiaoman Empire and the Luosha Federation were around forty, and the other three powers were all under thirty. The Saiyi Imperial Kingdom at most had twenty, meaning its industrial capacity was only one-fifth of that of the Liangxia Empire.

Crucially, this was the peacetime industrial capacity of the Liangxia Empire.

Because the service industry was very developed, with a large population engaged in tertiary industries, the industrial capacity of the Liangxia Empire could increase significantly after entering a wartime state.

If the production efficiencies were roughly equal, then the industrial output the Liangxia Empire could unleash in a wartime state was almost equivalent to the total of the other Great Powers combined.

This was terrifying!

Without a doubt, this was the confidence behind the Liangxia Empire’s decision to take on the whole world alone.

In fact, this also indirectly demonstrated the basic strategy of the Liangxia Empire.

Looking globally, the only country capable of contesting the Liangxia Empire was situated across the East Ocean, namely the Newland Federation.

No matter how the next war was fought, the Liangxia Empire had to first defeat its most powerful adversary.

Thus, the Liangxia Empire needed a navy capable of sweeping across the entire East Ocean, even dominating the whole world.

This was key to the willingness of the Liangxia Empire to ally with the Luosha Federation, thereby eliminating terrestrial threats and focusing on building a navy that could sweep the Four Seas.