Volume 7 Chapter 55 - Turbulent Continent
Year 3800, the first year of the new century wasn’t a peaceful year.
Or it could be said that the second half of this year wasn’t peaceful.
As soon as July came, when it was so hot that one couldn’t resist the heat anymore, the first bit of turbulence happened in the southeast corner.
The Nozdormu Business Union Kingdom that had been peaceful for several years after invading their northern neighbours had suddenly started to wage war on their northern neighbours again.
This time, the Nozdormu Business Union Kingdom used the excuse of a very normal conflict at the northern border.
However, when the war started, the Nozdormu Business Union Kingdom didn’t try to resolve this small conflict, but rather they started an all out war.
With the large amount of military magic machines they had obtained from working with the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, the Nozdormu Business Union Kingdom’s army was the strongest among the surrounding countries.
Adding in the powerful finances that they had, in just a month and ten days, the Nozdormu Business Union Kingdom completely occupied two small duchies to the north. They also swallowed half of a kingdom that they had waged war on.
The two duchies dissolved themselves and the kingdom that had lost half their land had been greatly damaged and couldn’t recover.
At the same time, to the south of the Nozdormu Business Union Kingdom, the Wales Duchy that was less than a thousand kilometers away didn’t stay still.
In the middle of July, the Wales Duchy didn’t even declare war as they invaded the Tomor Duchy to the east.
In half a month, the Tomor Duchy announced their dissipation and fell under the Wales Duchy’s name.
At the end of July, the Marlow empire gave the pretense of a border conflict to send an army to invade the Durain Kingdom to the southwest.
Although the Durain Kingdom was a country with a third grade magic machine industry according to the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, having a large amount of military magic machines, they couldn’t compare to a large empire like the Marlow Empire.
After resisting with great difficulty for a month and a half, the Durain Kingdom surrendered to the Marlow Empire. They announced that they would cede one thousand and three hundred square kilometers of territory at the border to the Marlow Empire, while opening up all their domestic mineral resources to the Marlow Empire.
In mid August, the Candra Empire wasn’t willing to fall behind and started moving.
But the Candra Empire didn’t start a war. They announced to the public that the Norton Duchy would be integrated into the Candra Empire, becoming part of the Candra Empire’s southwest province.
When this news spread, it shocked the countries of the southwest corner.
Although the Norton Duchy was only a small duchy, it had a very special position. It was just between several countries and the Candra Empire.
If the countries of the southwest corner wanted to go east or north, they would either have to go over a thousand kilometers from the southern sea or go through the other two paths in the Norton Duchy.
Because of this, the Norton Duchy had been regarded as the gateway to the continent’s southwest by these countries. It was one of the main gates in stopping the Candra Empire from invading the southwest countries.
The other one was naturally the Rudson Kingdom.
After the Norton Duchy joined the Candra Empire, the most nervous was the Rudson Kingdom.
Because before this, the only border between the Rudson Kingdom and the Candra Empire was to the east of the Rudson Kingdom, which was a small part of the Candra Empire’s southwest region.
When the Candra Empire invaded the Rudson Kingdom twice before, although the main reason the Rudson Kingdom resisted this invasion was because of the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, having many military magic machines to gain the advantage on the battlefield, the geography also played a very important role.
Now that the Norton Duchy had been annexed by the Candra Empire, it meant that the border between the Norton Duchy and the Rudson Kingdom had become the border between the Candra Empire and the Rudson Kingdom. It meant that the northern part of the Rudson Kingdom had been exposed to the Candra Empire.
Even if the Rudson Kingdom had the advantage when it came to military magic machines, it was already hard to resist an invasion from the Candra Empire before.
Now that the gate to the north had been opened, the Rudson Kingdom had lost their geographical advantage. Then with how the Candra Empire had also been working closely with the Frestech Chamber of Commerce during the past few years, gaining quite a bit of military magic machines, the Rudson Kingdom’s advantage had grown much smaller.
So the news of the Norton Duchy joining the Candra Empire was very dangerous news for the Rudson Kingdom.
If the Candra Empire wanted to invade, with the Rudson Kingdom’s current strength, their fate would be troubling.
“You don’t need to worry. The Candra Empire shouldn’t have any ideas about you right now.” Xu Yi looked at the worried look of the Rudson Kingdom’s parliament speaker, Duke Boris and shook his head.
This time the Rudson Kingdom had sent Duke Boris who was the most important person under King Teruc to meet Xu Yi, which showed that the Rudson Kingdom really was worried about this issue.
“They don’t have any ideas about us?” Duke Boris was surprised before shaking his head with a bitter smile, “Chairman Xu, our Rudson Kingdom has had conflict with the Candra Empire before and even waged war with them, so there is a deep grudge. If the Candra Empire had a chance, they definitely wouldn’t hesitate to invade.”
“Lord Duke, you should know better than me that the essence of war is benefits. If it was said that the Candra Empire had invaded the Rudson Kingdom before just to guard the honour of the empire, even you wouldn’t believe it, right?”
Duke Boris nodded with a calm look, “Of course. The Candra Empire naturally wants our Rudson Kingdom’s territory.”
“So you think that they have the same idea now?” Xu Yi asked.
“Of course.” Duke Boris slightly knitted his brows as he looked at Xu Yi, “Chairman Xu, isn’t it very normal if it’s for territory? Any country will have this idea, not to mention a giant empire like the Candra Empire.
“That was before, but it isn’t certain now.” Xu Yi shook his head. After pausing for a bit, he said with a serious look, “Lord Duke, I’ll say something that you won’t like to hear. Do you think……that your Rudson Kingdom’s territory has any value that the Candra Empire would want?”
Duke Boris looked at Xu Yi with a confused look.
“Chairman Xu, your question is a bit…..strange. Isn’t it normal for a country to want territory?”
“But if the territory can’t bring any benefits and would cost a large price, would there be a person or a country that would be willing to do this?”
Duke Boris deeply knitted his brows and thought for a long time, but he still had a confused look.
“Chairman Xu, your meaning is that our Rudson Kingdom has no value to the Candra Empire right now, so they wouldn’t pay a large price to invade us?”
“I’m not 100% certain, but it should be like this.” Xu Yi said with a nod, “From my perspective, your Rudson Kingdom’s mineral resources are far from rich and your other products are normal. The only thing of value is your southern connection to the seas. The Candra Empire isn’t lacking this, so for them, your Rudson Kingdom doesn’t have enough value for them to pay this price.”
“But…..the territory itself is valuable……”
Seeing that Duke Boris couldn’t understand his thoughts, Xu Yi felt a bit helpless.
This was the biggest difference in thoughts between someone like him who transmigrated from earth and a local of the Sines Continent.
For the people of the Sines Continent, territory was the most important thing because land could produce grains. Naturally more land meant more grains, which could support more people.
So the people of the Sines Continent wanted as much land as they could get, so all countries wanted to increase their territory.
This concept was natural for an underdeveloped era, it had been like this on earth before and the Sines Continent wouldn’t be an exception.
But since the appearance of the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, with the large amount of agricultural magic machines developed and working together with the elves to develop the fertilizer, as well as the other crop enhancing chemicals, the grain yield of the countries on the Sines Continent had increased compared to before.
Even this most important issue had been solved, but Duke Boris still had the same traditional thoughts, so Xu Yi couldn’t say anything.
After thinking about it, Xu Yi gave up the idea of debating with Duke Boris if territory was important to a country and instead said, “How about this? Lord Duke, please tell his majesty that our Frestech Chamber of Commerce and the Rudson Kingdom are close partners. If the Rudson Kingdom is facing any problems, our Frestech Chamber of Commerce naturally wouldn’t ignore them.”
Hearing this, Duke Boris’ eyes lit up and they filled with joy.
His goal in coming here this time was to win the support of the Frestech Chamber of Commerce.
But he never thought that Xu Yi would promise this quickly. The most important thing was that he wasn’t vague about it and had been very clear.
“Being able to get this promise from chairman Xu, his majesty will be very happy.” Duke Boris grasped Xu Yi’s hands and forcefully shook them, “Chairman Xu, the Rudson Kingdom will always be the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s best partner!”
Xu Yi had the same smile on his face, but he gave a sigh deep down.
If it wasn’t to maintain a strategic buffer zone between the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s main base and the Candra Empire, he wouldn’t have given such an explicit agreement.