A major event indeed occurred!
Just before noon, accurately speaking, just before twelve o'clock, in the final moments of the preliminary consultations and preparatory meetings for the ceasefire negotiations, representatives of several member nations of the Alliance Group finally reached a consensus to adopt the plan proposed by the Newland Federation to hold ceasefire negotiations in the capital of Nanzhu Country with the Liangxia Empire.
Subsequently, without prior notice, the representative of the Alliance Group threw this result to the representative of the Liangxia Empire.
Implicitly, the Liangxia Empire had to agree; there was no second choice.
From this, it could be seen just how arrogant the Alliance Group was.
However, for the Liangxia Empire, this was an acceptable proposal.
Going to Nanzhu Country was much better than going to the Saiyi Imperial Kingdom.
Before conducting consultations, the Liangxia Empire had clearly stated that formal negotiations should not be held within the territory of any enemy nation but in a neutral country.
The reason was well justified as these were not surrender negotiations but ceasefire negotiations, where both parties had equal status.
Therefore, the consultations took more than a month and dragged on until the last moment.
Since other issues had already been resolved through negotiations prior to this, as per the agreement between both sides, formal negotiations were to start in late February.
Apart from needing time for preparations, this timing also avoided the Spring Festival in mid-February.
According to the broadcast propaganda, it was already a significant victory that the Alliance Group sat down for negotiations, especially ceasefire negotiations!
Although somewhat exaggerated, this was indeed the case.
At the end of last year, after the Ter Empire's defeat and surrender, the main member nations of the Alliance Group—Locke Republic, Bulan Kingdom, and Luosha Empire, along with later participants Newland Federation and Saiyi Imperial Kingdom—held a war ministers' meeting in the capital of the Locke Republic, emphasizing one point: before achieving complete victory, the five nations must remain unanimous and never negotiate with the enemy individually or privately.
At this meeting, it was also confirmed for the first time, in principle, not to conduct any ceasefire-related negotiations with the Consortium Group.
To put it bluntly, the ultimate goal of the Alliance Group was to thoroughly defeat the Consortium Group.
Thus, the Consortium Group could either surrender due to defeat or declare defeat through surrender; in any case, they could not end the war through negotiations.
Now, forcing the other side to sit down for ceasefire negotiations was indeed considered a victory.
Under the current situation, the Liangxia Empire could not possibly achieve ultimate victory; at best, they could suffer a dignified defeat.
All this actually began with the military rebellion spreading outward from the Luosha Empire.
To be precise, the Luosha Empire had ended, and the current nation was called Lusha Federation Republic, abbreviated as Luosha Federation, or Luo Alliance.
To this day, only the Liangxia Empire and Tiaoman Empire recognized this newly born nation.
As for the member nations of the Alliance Group, they all declared the Luosha Federation an illegitimate regime.
This New Year was destined not to be peaceful.
A few days later, on the first weekend of the 79th year of the New Calendar, the largest military base of the Tiaoman Empire erupted in rebellion. Enraged sailors seized the armory, declared their march toward the empire's capital to overthrow the War Cabinet controlled by the Surrender Faction, and establish a military government to rewrite the empire's glory.
On the same day, under pressure and to preserve the empire, Wild II abdicated the throne in the palace.
That same evening, Wild II left the Tiaoman Empire by military train and headed to a neighboring country, where his cousin served as queen, finally easing the tense situation.
On Monday morning, Feditli III, immediately after his ascension, signed and issued the surrender decree.
On January 11th, in a forest near the battlefield ominously known as "Meat Grinder," where fifty thousand soldiers had died in one day and hundreds of thousands had perished from both sides, representatives of the Tiaoman Empire officially signed the surrender document in the presence of representatives from the Alliance Group.
Due to the rushed circumstances and the very basic conditions, the signing ceremony was held in a temporarily dragged-in railroad car.
Note, it was a surrender, not a ceasefire!
Although the Liangxia Empire was still holding on, and the Tiaoman Empire remained allies with the Liangxia Empire, besides a few conditions such as preserving the Imperial Family being met, the Tiaoman Empire abandoned other more significant and meaningful demands, almost unreservedly surrendering to the Alliance Group.
To what extent, you ask?
Take the Navy, for example.
Within three months after signing the surrender, they must hand over all submarines, or disable their diving capabilities to decommission their combat power. Within six months, they needed to disarm the Public Sea Fleet and, after destroying the Main Gun, send all battleships of the Public Sea Fleet with a displacement of over five thousand tons to a military port designated by the Bulan Kingdom, to be overseen by the Royal Navy of Bulan as compensation for war reparations.
If this was an insult to the Navy, then for the Army, it was fatal!
Similarly, within six months, the Tiaoman Empire had to disband all regular forces, keeping only a hundred thousand military police armed with light weapons, hand over all cannons, most of the machine guns and mortars, transfer all military trains, and even withdraw from their own national borders.
In Bai Zhizhan's view, defeat could not be much worse!
However, for the Tiaoman Empire, it was not the case.
Objectively speaking, if they did not surrender and continued to fight, the Tiaoman Empire would still be defeated and possibly even dismembered by the enemy.
They might even follow in the footsteps of the Luosha Empire.
This was why, after a sailor mutiny, the stance of the Tiaoman Empire immediately underwent a one hundred and eighty-degree change, dropping any thoughts of a ceasefire.
Surrendering while they still had a breath, even if humiliated, they could preserve the essence of the nation and the hope for revival.
In fact, this was precisely why the Tiaoman Empire expressly requested to preserve the Imperial Family.
Perhaps in the eyes of those advocating for surrender, as long as the Imperial Family existed, the Tiaoman Empire could be revived and rise again one day.
They also timed it very well.
After the Alliance Group agreed to ceasefire negotiations with the Liangxia Empire, it was only reasonable to expect some concessions to the Tiaoman Empire if it could end the wars on the West Continent.
However, if huge disagreements arose in the negotiations with the Liangxia Empire, the Alliance Group might not concede to the Tiaoman Empire.
Was this really a coincidence?
Bai Zhizhan couldn't help but suspect that the sailor mutiny was a pre-planned conspiracy.
The Tiaoman Empire's straightforward surrender to the Alliance Group was certainly not cause for celebration for the Liangxia Empire, as it pushed them into a dire situation, making it difficult for the Liangxia Empire to negotiate with the Alliance Group in the upcoming ceasefire talks.
To put it bluntly, with the Tiaoman Empire surrendering, where was the room for negotiation?
Following the surrender of the Tiaoman Empire, all newspapers in the Liangxia Empire branded the Tiaoman Empire as traitors, believing they had betrayed and sold out their ally.
Now, the Liangxia Empire faced only two choices: one was to simply surrender to the Alliance Group like the Tiaoman Empire; the other was to show a decisive resolve, prepare for a mutual destruction if necessary, mobilize the nation's entire force to fight and force the Alliance Group to compromise and retreat.
Staying true to tradition, they would definitely choose the latter!
As such, from the first day of the new year, Bai Zhizhan was no longer idle, and the entire Puzhou Navy Shipyard buzzed with activity.
Whether the negotiations succeeded or not, they had to prepare for the worst-case scenario.
The crux was, several months after the cessation of hostilities, whether the insatiable Alliance Group would have the courage to fight a decisive battle against the Liangxia Empire!
How much was the Alliance Group willing to spend to defeat the Liangxia Empire?
And after defeating the Liangxia Empire, how much resource were they prepared to invest to stabilize the international situation?