Marquis Descartes had originally thought that Xu Yi's unexpectedly tough attitude was just a negotiation tactic to force the Kandla Empire to change the terms that were more beneficial to them.
This kind of negotiation tactic was common, so he was only surprised at the beginning, but was not in a hurry. He reported the situation of the negotiations to the upper echelons of the Kandla Empire while preparing to continue contact with the New Flyer and the Kingdom of Ruhr to proceed with the next step of the negotiations.
However, what he didn't expect was that whether it was the Rudson Kingdom or the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, they all firmly rejected his requests to meet again. So even after he and the envoy stayed in Babral City for a week, they didn't see a single person from the Rudson Kingdom or the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, not to mention Xu Yi who had a decisive role in this.
A week later, a piece of news reached Marquis Descartes' ears, and immediately shocked him and everyone in the diplomatic group.
The Kingdom of Ruhr and the New Flyer's guards had breached Mobian City in the southern part of the Talaman Province two days ago, which was the 3rd of May. They were now approaching the provincial capital of the Talaman Province.
"Lord Marquis, these guys … … they really don't seem to have any intention of negotiating with us … …" A member of the diplomatic group said to Marquis Descartes, dumbfounded.
Marquis Descartes could no longer maintain his usual calm expression, and his weak smile was full of bitterness.
He had never thought that the New Flyer and the Kingdom of Ruhr would actually have the face to not even give them a chance to negotiate, and directly continue to attack.
Did they really think that they had the ability to defeat the powerful Kandla Empire?
"Lord Marquis, what do we do now?" Another member of the diplomatic group asked.
Marquis Descartes shook his head lightly, his expression somewhat blank.
The New Flyer's toughness was completely beyond his expectations, and he did not know what to do.
After thinking for a long time, Marquis Descartes let out a long sigh.
"Let's wait.
The only thing we can do is wait.
No matter what, it depends on the performance on the battlefield.
So now … … we can only hope that the soldiers of the Empire will not let us down … … "
The other members of the diplomatic group looked at each other, and they could all see the bitterness in each other's smiles.
If the soldiers of the Empire did not let them down on the battlefield, why would they appear here and even have to endure the arrogance of the Kingdom of Ruhr and the New Flyer?
###
From another point of view, the soldiers of the Kandla Empire army really did not let the diplomatic group members down.
Because … … … … … … they did not resist the attack of the Kingdom of the Empire.
After the outbreak of the Empire's Army army army army army, the Talaman Province Province Province fell faster than the Southwest Province.
In less than twenty one days, the capital of the Talaman Province was broken through. The governor of the Talaman Province, Duke Lagor, did not retreat and died in battle.
The five Arch Magi that the Kandla Empire requested for reinforcements were not all spared. One Arch Magus fell, two of the remaining four Arch Magi were heavily injured, and the other two were forced to retreat.
After the province fell, the five northern cities of the Talaman Province all surrendered to the Kingdom of Ruhr's Army.
Like this, the Talaman Province had completely fallen.
On the 29th day of the fifth month, the governor of the Southern Province, Duke Erman Windsor, suddenly announced the independence of the Southern Province, separating from the Kandla Empire.
When this news came out, the entire Kandla Empire was shocked, and the Sines were also shocked.
On the seventh day of the sixth month, the most southern province of the Kandla Empire, as well as the province with the most coastlines in the Kandla Empire, the Torea Province also announced their separation from the Kandla Empire, but they didn't announce their independence, rather they announced that they were joining the Principality of Constantine.
The Torea Province was one of the provinces of the Kandla Empire that cooperated with the New Flyer the most. In these years, the New Flyer had already built close to a hundred projects in the Torea Province, involving almost all aspects of the Torea Province. It could be considered the province with the deepest infiltration.
When the Kandla Empire announced that the New Flyer was a hostile company, although the New Flyer industries in the Torea Province suffered some damage, most of them were preserved through various methods. This allowed the New Flyer's influence in the Torea Province to be deeply rooted.
So when the Torea Province announced their separation from the Kandla Empire after the Southern Province, joining the Principality of Constantine, although it shocked many people, it didn't exceed many people's expectations.
But unlike the Southern Province's declaration of independence, the Torea Province's declaration of independence caused serious damage to the Kandla Empire.
Because of the restrictions of the cooperation agreement between the New Flyer and the Kandla Empire, the New Flyer's magic machine industry projects in the Kandla Empire were mainly concentrated in two places.
The first place was the industrial base near the capital, Wimbledon City. It was mainly used as a demonstration, so the scale wasn't large.
In comparison, the New Flyer and the Kandla Empire's real cooperation projects could be said to be concentrated in the Torea Province.
Just the scale of the magic machine industry in the Torea Province alone was enough to account for 70% of the magic machine industry development in the Kandla Empire.
Now that the Torea Province had separated from the Kandla Empire, it instantly had a serious impact on all aspects of the Kandla Empire. It immediately caused a nationwide panic in the Kandla Empire.
More importantly, the separation of the Torea Province meant that the Kandla Empire had lost its southern coastline and all of its ports to the sea.
The current Kandla Empire had practically become a landlocked country.
Of course, the people in the Sines didn't have a strong understanding of this point.
The focus of everyone's attention was still on the new Lushan army that was advancing into the Kandla Empire.
Two provinces had been taken and during this time, the Kandla Empire's army didn't see any hope of victory. This was a serious blow to the morale and confidence of the Kandla Empire.
Although the Kandla Empire didn't give up and thought of a way to turn this situation around, they had no chance of winning at all. Even if they wanted to set an ambush to turn the situation around, the Magic Airships that were everywhere in the New Flyer had turned all of their ambushes into jokes.
As the new Lushan army approached Wimbledon City step by step, the citizens of the Kandla Empire didn't feel anything, but the high level nobles of the empire became more and more unsettled.
After the southwest province and the Torea Province, there were another thirteen provinces that announced their separation from the Kandla Empire. They also expressed various degrees of cooperation to the New Flyer.
Like this, close to half of the Kandla Empire's provinces had left their control.
In the close to a thousand years of history of the Kandla Empire, there had been chaos caused by various reasons. There had even been times when the imperial capital, Wimbledon City, fell into chaos and was even close to being destroyed.
In these dangerous times, the Kandla Empire had always recovered and returned to being a large empire.
But this time ….. it was different from all the crises that had happened before.
When the Kandla Empire fell into a crisis before, it was mostly because of internal strife.
But this time, the Kandla Empire didn't have any internal strife. Rather, in the close to a hundred years before this, the Kandla Empire's imperial power was the most stable and developed golden age.
In a normal situation, this kind of Kandla Empire couldn't be defeated at all.
But now, with the appearance of the New Flyer, all of the Kandla Empire's defenses were shattered and the Kandla Empire was thrown into chaos.
August 16th, could be considered the hottest day of the year.
On this day, the Lu New Coalition Army took the southern most city of the Kandla Empire's Central Province, St. Anthonis, and officially stepped into the Central Province. They truly threatened the heart of the Kandla Empire — — Wimbledon City.
Five days later, Marquis Descartes once again led the diplomatic group and appeared in front of the Lu New Coalition Army outside St. Anthonis.
But unlike four months ago, when Descartes Marquis Descartes saw the fully equipped New Flyer guards in the Lu New Coalition Army, he didn't have any sense of superiority as a Kandla Empire's Lord Marquis. There was only endless bitterness and dispiritedness.
The countless battles with the Lu New Coalition Army in the past few months told everyone that the Kandla Empire that was incomparably powerful in people's hearts was actually so weak.
Starting from last year, the continuous defeats that lasted for more than a year had completely shattered the confidence of the nobles like Descartes Marquis in the Kandla Empire. It also shattered the pride in their hearts.
No matter how much they cursed and hated in their hearts, they had to admit that the empire was helpless against the "demon bestowed" military magic machines of the New Flyer.
Even Descartes Marquis felt a trace of joy and relief in his heart.
In the past four months, the Kandla Empire had made many requests to the New Flyer for peace talks. Descartes Marquis had even risked his life to come to the front of the Lu New Coalition Army many times, but the New Flyer had never responded.
And now, the New Flyer finally gave a positive response and agreed to give the Kandla Empire another chance for peace talks. Descartes Marquis was naturally overjoyed, and the entire upper echelons of the Kandla Empire were also overjoyed.
Since the New Flyer was still willing to negotiate, it meant that there was still hope for things to ease.
As for what the Kandla Empire would become after the peace talks, that was something to consider in the future …