Empire of Shadows

The more it comes to times like these, the more necessary it is to purge groups and individuals who might bring about negative influences.

Lance wanted people to deeply realize that this place, and the outside, although on the same piece of land, were absolutely two different worlds.

The police cars in the concession continuously drove back and forth. Some people were being dragged out by their hair from where they lived or worked by the police.

More were arrested from outside the concession and then brought back.

These people would all be publicly executed, used to warn people that even if the entire situation underwent a huge change, it was no excuse for them to act recklessly.

Because in the sky above this city, there was a pair of eyes watching this city, and also observing the people in the city.

Lance felt that in at most one or two months, everything would become clear.

When the Rapa government army and these anti-government armed forces had almost finished fighting each other, the power that controlled people’s thoughts and throats would disappear. People would then be able to voice their own opinions and have their own ideas.

In another place, the same thing was happening.

The pedestrians on the road were almost all walking with their necks shrunk and their heads lowered. Even if something happened on the roadside, they didn’t dare to look around.Everyone was cautiously looking at the small patch of ground in front of their feet. The atmosphere in the entire city was solemn, as if solidified.

This was the capital of the Dantra Republic, the location of the Dantra Presidential Palace.

This place was originally very lively, but as the war continuously fell into a quagmire, the lively areas also became somewhat depressed.

In the early stages of the war, the streets were full of people cheering for victory. They seemed to have already foreseen Dantra fiercely trampling the Slad people into the ground!

They were going to plunder the Slad people’s land, loot their wealth, burn their crops, humiliate their wives and daughters, and then kill their men.

Every Dantra person became agitated because of this, becoming... like a beast!

They gathered in the capital, shouting the president’s name to express their love and respect for this president. At that time, even in the dead of winter, many people gathered on the streets of the capital, discussing the war and the future.

But look at it now. There is no one on the streets, just like the federal streets where the Great Depression began a few years ago.

Even if a passerby or two occasionally passed by, they were in a hurry.

No one was gathering outside the Presidential Palace anymore. Furthermore, there were now armies and police standing guard outside the Presidential Palace, ready to expel and arrest anyone who threw stones at the Presidential Palace.

”If we choose peace talks now, everything we have paid before will be for nothing. We will lose all our advantages...”

In the warm, even somewhat stuffy room, the President sat behind his desk, holding the receiver, speaking loudly to the person on the other end of the line.

He looked to be in his fifties, not very tall, with a rather common center-parted hair.

His entire face looked somewhat weary, carrying that ”aged flavor” unique to some middle-aged and elderly people. He was a charming person.

A beautiful floral collar wrapped around his chin. It was a pity that he seemed not to have had time to groom his chin these past two days, so his chin was now covered in stubble, looking very unsightly.

He looked a bit haggard.

Perhaps a little more than ”a bit.” He was trying to persuade the person on the other end of the phone, one of the main supporters of the war.

Launching a war is not simply a matter of a country’s leader, the head of state, saying ”I want to launch a war,” and the war breaking out.

The country never belongs to the president. It belongs to the upper class, the financial groups, the political families. It belongs to them.

Only by persuading enough people to stand on his side does the president have the right to launch a war.

In fact, to put it another way, declaring war is just the final result after all the forces have agreed, not the beginning.

”Although we are currently at a disadvantage, our war potential has not been exhausted. We can continue to fight them.”

”Our general is bringing us more metal raw materials, oil, and people from the east. We can totally sustain this war!”

”And, we now have a huge advantage, which is that the battlefield is on our national soil.”

”Our supply lines are shorter, and the speed of aid reaching the front line is faster. Our advantage on the battlefield is much greater than theirs.”

”We only need one satisfying victory to push the battlefield back to the national border!”

He paused, lit a cigarette for himself. Some sounds came from the receiver, which only he could hear.

His tightly furrowed brow let his chief aide notice that his mood was very bad now.

After explaining a few more sentences, he cursed ”fuck” and fiercely slammed the phone onto the base.

He looked up at his chief aide with some irritation. ”It was... who called. He is disappointed with the progress and goals of our current war.”

”This is not good news. I think they plan to press the stop button on the war.”

War is also a business, and also a treatment method.

To say it’s a business, you can see this from the fact that the economy quickly rebounded after the Federation entered the war. They sell a large amount of supplies to the areas affected by the war.

Slad, and its allied countries.

Because of the war, most of these countries’ industries have converted to serving the war. Then the gap in the civilian market is filled by the Federation.

After all, people don’t like war, but life still has to go on. They can’t let the entire society regress to a primitive society just because a war breaks out, can they?

To say it’s a treatment method is because the class conflict has become white-hot and irreconcilable. If they don’t launch a foreign war as a channel to release the gradually increasing domestic pressure, then it is very likely that Dantra would have already started a civil war by now.

As the relatively stronger side of the war, from before the war broke out, all the people of Dantra believed that they were the winners of this war, which was why they had launched it resolutely.

They would use plundering to solve the continuously erupting domestic class conflict, to keep the country’s development going, and at the same time, not to be fragmented by the outbreak of conflict.

This idea was supported by almost all of the Dantra upper class. In their view, consuming a part of the energetic low-level people, and then gaining huge profits and even land through plundering, and arranging for the troublemakers who were dissatisfied with the status quo to live on the new land, letting them create new classes, and then turning them into a part of the class barrier—this was their habitual method.

And to be honest, it works very well.

Everything was so perfect, including the advance in the initial stage of the war. But the good times are always short-lived. Everything stopped the moment the Federation joined the war.

The nightmare had arrived.

Even now, some people are still investigating the Dantra Navy’s attack on the federal merchant ship, because the navy side has not reported any destruction of a federal vessel.

At the same time, the navy generals have also not issued any combat orders to attack federal cargo ships.

They believe this is very likely a trick played by the federal people themselves. They sank their own freighters and framed the Dantra Republic.

But even if they truly obtained evidence, it would be of no practical significance, because as a hostile country, the Federation could completely deny that all this was true.

They could say that these were all fabrications, evidence concocted to slander the federal government.

These people are still investigating these matters, just wanting to know why everything has turned out this way.

The federal people’s involvement had changed the course of the war. They had started with an advantage, but now they were continuously retreating, becoming disadvantaged.

Some military officers and strategists in the country believe that the best way to change the status quo is to launch an attack on the federal homeland, to make the federal people unable to focus on this battlefield.

They had actually tried a little, attacking Golden Port City. The effect only lasted for a few months and then ended, and everything returned to the way it was before.

For more than two years, the war has shown no sign of improving. They haven’t plundered much wealth or assets. For this war, forget about making money; it’s already a limit to lose a little less.

This has led to the true ruling class of this society being unwilling to support the continuation of the war!

They want peace talks.

If there was still hope of winning by continuing to fight, they would definitely persist. But judging from the current situation, even if they reluctantly continued to fight, they couldn’t see the slightest hope of victory.

This kind of destined-to-be-a-loss situation is something that neither capitalists nor politicians would do. Not to mention that the purpose of their launching the war was to gain profit and solve problems.

Peace talks will not have any impact on these capital forces, these politicians, and political forces.

The people’s dissatisfaction and hatred will not be concentrated on them, but the president’s days will definitely not be easy.

You launched the war, and you are the one surrendering, and you are surrendering to the Slad people. Public opinion and popular sentiment will boil over, like continuously rolling volcanic magma, capable of melting everything!

The president wants to maintain the current situation, but judging from his connection with these major families, it seems he can’t.

He is now leaning back in his chair, somewhat dejectedly, not at all like a country’s president. He is like a person who has proactively given up overtime pay and worked until three in the morning in the office, full of fatigue and helplessness.

The chief aide didn’t know how to comfort the president. He had participated in the formulation of the war game, the declaration of war, all the way up to this moment.

He could only go and make a cup of coffee for Mr. President and bring it over.

The president straightened up, his eyes bloodshot. ”They want to trade me as a bargaining chip...”

He picked up the coffee, then took out a small bottle of whiskey from the drawer and poured the liquor into the coffee.

Good wine plus coffee, cup after cup.

The war is about to end, and as the ”seeking peace” side, both the Slad people and the Dantra people will demand a high price. They will ask for many things.

And besides that, someone must take responsibility for this war.

This war has caused millions of deaths and injuries. There are also many who have died indirectly because of the war. The number of deaths affected by the war might exceed ten million.

With so many people dead, it cannot be ended just by signing a peace agreement and having a few people read it out in public. Someone must be held responsible.

Then, what is there that carries more weight than a president?

He will die.

And he is very clear that it is not the federal people or the Slad people who will kill him. It is these domestic actual ruling classes. They will be worried that he will do something excessive, so they will eliminate him.

He will be like used toilet paper, thrown directly into the toilet and flushed away.

He looked at his chief aide. ”Everything, from the very beginning, was not like this.”

The chief aide sighed. ”It may be a little late to say that now. Neither we nor the Slad people have won this war. The Federation is the only winner.”

The president was breathing heavily. He looked at the chief aide, his lips tightly pursed. The hatred churning in his eyes made the chief aide a little afraid to look directly at him.

”No, there is still one way.”

The chief aide was not sure what the president was thinking, but at this moment, he felt a sudden, soul-deep shiver.

He knew that something big was about to happen.

But at this moment, besides remaining silent, he could do nothing. He was the president’s man. If the president fell, his days would also not be easy.

If the president were to be tried for war crimes, then he, as his chief aide, would also be greatly affected.

Perhaps they would also arrange some charges for him and lock him up.

...

For several consecutive days, the entire world seemed to be undercurrents. The sound of artillery fire on the front line had also decreased significantly.

But in the diplomatic field, a high-frequency communication had begun.

People from various countries were contacting each other. Even the Slad people were contacting the Dantra people.

Last month, they were still planning to turn each other’s skulls into works of art. Now, they were secretly contacting each other behind the federal people’s backs.

This world is like this after all. Friendship, affection, no matter what, they can’t outweigh interests.

The federal people’s appetite is too big, so big that the Slad people are beginning to worry if this is the federal people’s plan to get involved in the Tanfit continent.

Compared to the Federation, which is stronger in all aspects and more irresistible, they are actually more willing to associate with their old neighbor, the Dantra people.

Although their hatred for each other can be traced back to the distant past, in the end, they are neighbors, and they have had periods of reconciliation and friendship.

The federal people are also contacting the Slad people and the Dantra people. They want to gain more benefits from this war. To eat the most fertile piece of meat, they certainly can’t just fight; they also have to negotiate.

Some media, some newspapers, also seemed to sense the change in the tide. They no longer talked much about the war, but started talking about peace. It seemed that overnight, the world’s landscape had truly undergone a subtle change...