Chapter 1004: Public Opinion

Frank, Paris.

When news of the Joint Fleet's defeat reached Britain, Jacques, President of the Frank Second Empire, also received a letter from the Expeditionary Army's Army General, Gaole'er.

Twenty-eight years ago, he had personally overthrown the Frank Emperor Louis XVIII, formally abolished the Frank imperial system, and taken office as the first Frank President.

Afterwards, in order to find markets for Frank's gradually prospering Steam Industry, he launched overseas competition with Britain.

It was during this period that Frank annexed the region they named Southeast China.

He had always regarded this as his own glory.

He viewed Frank's Southeast China with the same focus as the British viewed Tianzhu, and he had plans for further invasion of Dayan.

But all of this was ruined by a Dayan vassal king called Yan Wang.

This made him feel extreme hatred and disgust.

Therefore, when Britain called for the formation of a Western Lands Joint Fleet, he was the first to choose to support it.

His conflicts with other Xitu Guo over overseas colonies were merely a matter of how much meat each country could carve out.

But the problem with this Dayan Yan Wang was that they might not only be unable to eat the meat of Dongtu anymore, but might even have to spit out what they had already eaten.

Perhaps in the future, this Yan Wang might even come to eat their meat.

People die for wealth, and birds die for food.

It is the same for nations; acts that touch upon the national interests of others are equivalent to a declaration of war.

After all, for every extra bite the other side takes, they must take one less.

If the share of overseas interests decreases, the entire nation can only scramble for domestic interests, eventually leading to domestic chaos, which in turn leads to the nation's decline.

Simply put, if one wants the nation's wealth to continue growing and commerce to continue developing, one must plunder externally and occupy markets.

In this way, the overall wealth of the citizens can also grow continuously along with the nation, and the citizens will naturally live and work in peace.

Conversely, if national wealth shrinks, they can only scramble for interests internally; the wealth gap between people within the country grows, and to a certain extent, this will cause turmoil.

Now, this is the crisis the entire Western Lands world is facing.

Their Steam Industry is constantly developing, while the markets of the New Continent and the Dark Continent can no longer satisfy their needs.

It is precisely because of this that for a hundred years, their Xitu Guo have set their sights on Dongtu.

In recent decades, they have accelerated this process even further.

Now, everything is ruined because of this accident, Yan Wang.

"Damn it, damn it." In the presidential office within the Presidential Palace, Jacques slammed the letter onto the table, his chest heaving continuously.

Originally, he thought the problem in Dongtu was just a minor issue, that the British were deliberately exaggerating it to pull other countries in to help eliminate this Dayan Yan Wang.

It was only after Britain promised to share the spoils of Dayan after eliminating Yan Wang that he agreed to this matter.

Although there were conflicts between the Xitu Guo.

Their interests were aligned on the issue of defeating and partitioning Dayan.

But in the face of cold reality, he realized that a major disaster had occurred in Dongtu and it must be taken seriously.

Furthermore, he had to ease relations with Britain and Ross, and cooperate more deeply.

"Those hateful swine, yellow-skinned monkeys..." Jacques cursed for a while longer using every vocabulary word he could think of. "They won't get away with taking Southeast China from the hands of the great Frank. Go call Henry; I want to meet with Ashley and meet with Nikolai. These Dongtu natives must pay the price for their actions."

Henry was the current Diplomatic Minister; upon receiving Jacques's order, he immediately headed to the Presidential Palace.

He then prepared to set off for Britain.

At the same time.

News of the Eastern Earth Allied Forces fleet's defeat was also spreading to other countries.

Folangji, Stedan, Yiluo Guo, Aoli Guo, and other countries reacted accordingly; diplomats were all urgently visiting one another, coming and going, and it became a chaotic mess.

It lasted for a full half-month before the various countries reached a common consensus to hold a second meeting in London.

And compared to the first meeting, due to the realization of the severity of the Dongtu problem, Britain, Frank, Ross,

Yiluo Guo, and Aoli Guo coerced more Xitu Guo into joining this meeting.

Even the President of Sam Country across the Atlantic, Sullivan, arrived in Britain by Steamship to participate in the meeting personally.

For a time, dignitaries from various countries gathered in London.

While the dignitaries were busy dealing with the Dongtu crisis, newspapers in various countries were quoting articles from the *London Daily* attacking Dayan.

Newspaper offices in various countries also received orders requiring them to continue writing articles to belittle and demonize Dayan from every aspect.

The goal was only one: to make Westerners believe that the Dayan people were barbaric, cruel, and ugly.

Thus, every Westerner would believe that even launching a massacre against the Dayan people was a matter of course.

These false articles in the newspapers circulated in various countries and soon stirred up malice among the Westerners toward Dayan.

Calls to dispatch armies to eliminate the Dayan people grew ever louder.

Zhao Xu was even depicted as a hideous demon.

The *London Daily* openly featured a drawing of a young man with horns on his head, the target obvious.

"Excellent, such propaganda must continue. Everything in our Western Lands is beautiful, like heaven, while everything in Dayan is ugly, like hell."

At Waterham Palace, Ashley put down today's newspaper and revealed a smile.

William stood beside Ashley and nodded.

He understood the importance of public opinion well; the massacres committed by British soldiers in the colonies were beautified by the newspapers, making their soldiers' actions seem full of justice, while the natives who resisted them deserved to be killed.

What they received was merely just punishment.

Of course, many Western citizens knew the truth in their hearts, but they were willing to believe they were righteous because they also obtained huge benefits from overseas.

These beautified articles were just to let them kill with a clear conscience.

Once, they slaughtered the natives of the New Continent with a clear conscience, and later, they sold slaves from the Dark Continent with a clear conscience.

Later still, it was Tianzhu, Luzon, Yajia, and Southeast China.

Now, it is the turn of Great Song.

"Everything will be as Your Majesty wishes," William replied, his gaze also yearning toward the window.

The arrival of dignitaries from various countries put them in a pleasant mood.

This confirmed a fact: Britain is the center of this world.

Facing the crisis in Dongtu, only they, Britain, could unite the entire Western Lands.

This is precisely the glory that belongs to the Empire.

"It is time; I hope we can achieve even greater results this time," Ashley said, walking toward the door.

At this moment, the sense of frustration in her heart due to the defeat in the Dongtu war vanished into thin air.

Replacing it was a conviction of certain victory.

Because of this defeat, the great powers of the Western Lands all felt a sense of crisis.

In order to cope with the crisis, both Ross and Frank temporarily suppressed their mutual conflicts.

Instead, they turned their guns to aim collectively at the East.

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