Empire Conquest-Chapter 812 - 77: Ironclad Ally (Part 2)

The most crucial reason the two traditional empires located at the eastern and western ends of the World Island could form an alliance is to jointly challenge the traditional Great Powers, overthrow the old world order established to maintain the interests of the traditional Great Powers, and establish an international order that benefits themselves.

Simply put, it’s to replace the traditional Great Powers.

But the problem is, at any given time, there is only one global hegemon.

During the era when traditional Great Powers dominated, the global hegemon was the Bulan Kingdom; the Locke Republic and other Great Powers all recognized and accepted the hegemonic status of the Bulan Kingdom.

So, after defeating these traditional Great Powers like the Bulan Kingdom and the Locke Republic, the Liangxia Empire and the Tiaoman Empire would go their separate ways.

At that time, if one could establish good relations with the Bulan Kingdom, they could seize the diplomatic initiative.

Grasping the opportunity could possibly construct a new order where the Liangxia Empire is the hegemon, allowing a more stable and lasting peace.

With so many benefits, why not do it?

Unfortunately, reality took another direction.

Due to his active advocacy for reconciliation with the Bulan Kingdom, including exchanging the sovereignty of the Southern Subcontinent, Xue Yuanzheng was driven out of the Prime Minister Mansion.

At that time, in order to avoid political turmoil caused by impeachment, Xue Yuanzheng chose to resign voluntarily.

After Xue Yuanzheng left the Prime Minister Mansion, the Legislative Assembly forcibly passed a bill aimed at occupying the Southern Subcontinent and implementing colonial rule over it.

By the time Lian Xusheng moved into the Prime Minister Mansion, this bill awaiting the Grand Secretary’s signature was already placed before him.

Lian Xusheng was able to move into the Prime Minister Mansion also because he had already reached a compromise with the Legislative Assembly, agreeing to sign this bill.

Afterwards, the Empire sent troops to occupy the Southern Subcontinent.

Though Lian Xusheng inherited Xue Yuanzheng’s political legacy, for example, shortly after the end of the war, by acknowledging the Bulan Kingdom as not an ordinary defeated country, he improved relations with the Bulan Kingdom and initiated nearly two decades of a honeymoon period. However, on the issue of the Southern Subcontinent, the Empire had already become deeply mired, with no way to extricate itself, nor could any country replace the Empire’s ruling status on the Southern Subcontinent.

By this stage, even the Bulan Kingdom had lost interest in the Southern Subcontinent.

During the first few years of Lian Xusheng’s first term as Imperial Chief Minister, he was entirely preoccupied with the issues of the Southern Subcontinent, ultimately failing on that front.

Post-war, two global ethnic independence movements both originated from the Southern Subcontinent.

After the outbreak of the first ethnic independence movement, Lian Xusheng did something with far-reaching impact.

He allowed the many local states on the Southern Subcontinent to choose between establishing an independent nation and forming a unified state according to custom, and uniting into nations.

This decision directly led to the creation of Bakistan.

At that time, several states located in the western part of the Southern Subcontinent chose to unite according to custom to form a nation, which is now Bakistan.

The decision was actually made for self-preservation.

Because of significant cultural and religious differences from other local states, and being more impoverished and backward, with a much smaller population than neighboring local states, these relatively underdeveloped local states decided to unite to form a nation, banding together to cope with threats from other local states, as they would surely not be able to defend themselves if established separately, and might even face invasion and annexation by other local states.

Of course, this was far from enough.

After its founding, Bakistan not only established diplomatic relations with the Liangxia Empire first but also applied to join the Eastern Group.

As a result, Bakistan became the first country on the Southern Subcontinent to join the Eastern Group.

Undoubtedly, Bakistan’s leaders have long been clearly aware that only by relying on the mighty Liangxia Empire can they maintain their nation’s independence and integrity.

As for past grievances, when faced with current and future interests, they are utterly insignificant.

A true politician is certainly a genuine realist.

Importantly, the Liangxia Empire also needed to build a "model" country to demonstrate its superiority, to regain influence in the Southern Subcontinent.

To put it bluntly, the Liangxia Empire could abandon colonial rule over the Southern Subcontinent, as the Liangxia Empire has consistently and resolutely opposed colonial policy, but it would definitely not relinquish its economic interests on the Southern Subcontinent, which must be maintained through established authority.

In fact, the Liangxia Empire originally gained trade and economic privileges on the Southern Subcontinent through authority.

Precisely because of this, the Liangxia Empire formed an alliance with Bakistan.

However, this is not a mere interest alliance.

After the end of the first ethnic independence movement, the Southern Subcontinent split into dozens of countries, both large and small, most of which are small countries.

However, a few powerful local states, to be precise, states established by local rulers, did not wish to let this divided situation persist.

The most representative of these was the Fanluo Country, formed based on Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana State, Punjab, and Northern State.

The founding slogan of Fanluo Country was to achieve national unification.

This is why there was a second ethnic independence movement.

Excluding external factors, uniting the entire Southern Subcontinent would not be too difficult a task given Fanluo Country’s formidable strength.

In reality, Bakistan was the only force capable of contending with Fanluo Country.

It was precisely due to the enormous threat posed by Fanluo Country that Bakistan allied with the Liangxia Empire after gaining independence, relying on the Liangxia Empire to counter Fanluo Country.