"I didn't expect them to agree so easily. They even gave up the right to decide the number of trains and routes, as well as the right to 'quick quarantine.' Isn't this giving up their own sovereignty? These guys won't be sent back to be torn apart by the angry citizens. "
For Vila Nova Dônia, discussing the distribution of the sunlight festival wasn't even worth mentioning. After all, not only were they the victims in the right, they also had the advantage in terms of absolute power.
The former would make one's voice louder, while the latter would make one's opponent's rebuttals become nothing more than nonsense. With these two added together, one would have a complete advantage on the negotiation table … especially since the weaker side wasn't united, and their power was greatly scattered.
"They? As long as there's no war reparations on the surface, or if they have to give someone's head, their bottom line is very low … They're even willing to give up some land. Really, they don't really care about land. "
From a moral point of view, Vila Nova Dônia, which was attacked, could choose to pay war reparations.
But if this amount of money was really proposed, considering the fact that Cape Town was unified in name, but was actually divided, the huge amount would have to be divided.
Rorschach had long seen that if they really proposed reparations, Cape Town's warlords would most likely choose war to solve the problem. The economy was declining year after year, the citizens were emigrating in large numbers, and the competition for goods was losing out. In order to guard against "external threats," the military budget was greatly increased every year. It would be strange if they could take out the money.
Sending Rorschach to discuss these matters was a double-edged sword. Naturally, it wasn't just for the sunlight festival. Rorschach easily completed his task and found out the bottom line of most of Cape Town's warlords.
To be honest, even Rorschach felt that this bottom line was a bit too much.
"As long as they don't lose out, as long as there's no humiliating treaty that tarnishes their reputation, as long as there's no war, they can give up anything."
Simply put, as long as their own power and power weren't affected, the city could give up land or give up power.
Rorschach shook his head. Although some people's actions were shameless, there was no room for him to waver or be merciful.
"Do they not understand what the things we want represent?"
"Why wouldn't they? They're smart. Even if they don't understand, how could their aides not understand? However, as long as you don't bleed, it doesn't matter if you bleed too much. "
The disdain in Rorschach's words was undisguised.
Compared to Sydeen and the old mayor of Cape Town in the past, there were more people in the upper echelons of Cape Town now. They seemed to have accepted foreign culture and were more polite, and they spoke of justice and human rights. But in essence, they were just warlords and not the leaders of their races. They lacked responsibility.
The new leader of the working class? The spokesperson of the City-state Eagle Faction? The advocate of the shaman spirit in the old tribe? Each and every one of them was packaged in a dignified manner, but none of them put their attention on the general trend. They were all focused on their own little plot of land.
This time, along with the Sunlight Ritual, the Aishi People obtained two conditions that didn't seem to be a big deal.
"In order to better satisfy the needs of the people of Cape Town participating in the Sunlight Ritual, Novodonia will temporarily decide on the train schedule, batches, and routes."
"In order to deal with ticket scalpers, ticket evaders, and wanted criminals, as well as to avoid the destructive effects of the virus carried by the Evil God, Novodonia will conduct the entry and exit inspection of the trains."
These two conditions really didn't seem to be much, and seemed to be emergency measures for the current situation. But the key was that both sides of the negotiation had tacitly "forgotten" the agreed time of implementation of these two measures.
According to one of the tacit rules of diplomacy, if there was no agreed time, then it was permanent. That would be a big problem. It directly changed from a temporary emergency measure to a real long-term policy.
The former was like a country's transportation in the hands of others. They could decide when to send people, send goods, and take people and goods away.
The latter, on the other hand, was the right to quarantine, but not to mention the fact that the virus carried by the Evil God could be quarantined. If you let others have the final say in your own customs, did that mean that others had sovereignty over your country?
Combining the two, it was a tacit permanent policy. That was, the Aishi People had the final say in Cape Town's entry and exit. The borders were completely open to the Aishi People.
For the Aishi Church, who pursued profits, this meant that the entire Cape Town's market and human resources were fully open. It was a long-term and stable source of huge profits.
At the same time, this also meant that Cape Town was about to be completely infiltrated. Commerce and trade that surpassed the current era would gradually colonize Cape Town … This was the same logic as how colonizing countries back in the day would desperately try to take over the railways, transportation, and customs of other countries. The end result was that your human resources would become my human resources. Only the people that you carefully nurtured over many years would jump over here to work as third-class laborers. Your resources would become my resources through "legal trade" and "higher prices." My excess goods would even be dumped on your territory.
The customs and traffic were in the hands of outsiders. Naturally, they would selectively draw blood and transfuse blood. It wasn't like they were trading with each other. Instead, it was a weird uncle-level "forced trade" where they could give you whatever injection and black tea they wanted.
From Cape Town's perspective, these two things could be given up. After all, what they lost wasn't real goods or land. It wouldn't be bad if word got out, and they wouldn't be targeted by their political enemies. As for the lack of an agreed time … didn't that mean that the time was right? Cape Town's situation would become even stronger, and they could take back these two things at any time.
Yep, at least Rorschach could tell that some of the bosses really did think so.
But since the Aishi People dared to sign the contract, and since Rorschach dared to ask for these two things, he was confident in himself. "You want to turn the situation around? Keep dreaming. Before, you were one out of a hundred, and we were one out of a hundred. Now, you're only thirty, and we're seventy. After thirty years … we'll be one out of a hundred, and you'll be at most 0.1. With the current trend of development and the potential of both sides, the gap between us will only grow bigger and bigger. "
Of course, if the situation really turned around, and Cape Town became stronger while Vila Nova Dônia became weaker, then there would be no point in continuing to maintain the ownership of this trade route. After all, most immigrants would go to richer countries. Only the less developed areas would be suitable for dumping their goods. Doing business would also be more profitable if you had the strength.
As for whether or not Cape Town's local businesses would be overtaken by foreign products after the trade route was opened, or whether or not the newly sprouted new industries would be destroyed, causing the unemployment rate to increase by 20%, or whether the unemployed young people would cause social instability … that would have nothing to do with the Aishi People. At the very least, Vila Nova Dônia would be happy to see the continued transfusion of elite immigrants and the expansion of the overseas market.
The colony would become worse and worse? Wouldn't that be even better? It would be easier for us to do whatever we wanted.
The treaty was signed, and both sides could call themselves the victors. However, there was still a fundamental difference. Both sides had different goals, which led to different goals.
The people of Cape Town were thinking that they had finally survived another crisis. Their opponents didn't take advantage of this opportunity to start a war and unify the Halet Wastelands. They only gave up some authority that didn't have any practical value. This was an important diplomatic victory … The Aishi People had never wanted to rule by force. Their previous experience had already proven that the benefits of "military conquest" were far from comparable to the benefits of "commercial trade and successful colonization."
So, both sides could announce their victory. In fact, the leaders of Cape Town did the same.
They hurriedly finished the negotiations, and before the formal treaty was even signed, they announced to the outside world that they had obtained an important diplomatic victory. The dark clouds of war have left us behind. Rorschach, who was staying in the embassy, could hear waves of cheering outside.
"… Should we announce it as well? Or should we say something selectively? After all, we've already obtained practical benefits. According to our usual habits, let's just let them announce their victory. "
The main representative of this negotiation was a high-level descender from the Radiance Scroll. In reality, the person in charge was Rorschach, the deputy representative who wore a mask most of the time and pretended to be mute. But now that his "superiors" asked him, Rorschach unhesitatingly shook his head.
"Our goal isn't to obtain these benefits. Not only will we publicize it, we'll also announce who the true victors are. We'll directly show the citizens the bloody truth. We'll also attack these Cape Town higher-ups for their shortsightedness and stupidity. We'll also predict the chaos that the colonization of Cape Town will bring about in the future …"
The high-level priest had an expression of "Are you kidding me? Are you a spy? "His expression almost made Rorschach laugh out loud.
"Don't look at me like that. I'm no Lei Feng, and everyone here isn't an idiot. Even if they can't see it now, they'll realize it sooner or later. But even if they can see it, there's nothing they can do to change it. Will those immigrants move back to the old cities because they're poor? Humans are all realistic. The more the gap widens, the greater the loss of human resources will be. The local residents' lives will become worse and worse, and they'll only resent the current higher-ups even more. "
Rorschach paused for a moment and changed the topic.
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
