Holy Roman Empire

Time rushed by, and half a month vanished in the blink of an eye.

Without any surprise, the news of Gleyer's successful landing spread and was quickly amplified by the media.

Although no one knew exactly where Gleyer town was, it was on England Island; that much was certain. The Continent United Army had reached the soil of England itself; could there be any suspense left in the war that followed?

When everyone's opinion was nearly unanimous, it was truth even if it wasn't truth. Even the most rational politicians could not avoid being influenced.

Washington

As one of the belligerents in this war, The United Government was now like ants on a hot pan, spinning in anxiety.

Secretary of State Pitt Nidermeyer complained, "The current situation is simply awful. Ever since this war started, I haven't received any good news.

The British are just useless, still basking in their past glory. Aside from boasting, they seem incapable of anything else.

They've been successfully invaded by stealth and haven't managed to drive the enemy back into the sea for so long. And they still have the audacity to claim it was just an accident.

..."

It wasn't that Pitt had a small measure, rather the British allies were too unreliable. Even though The United Government was known for its own shortcomings, it didn't stop Pitt from looking down on the British.

As a qualified American citizen, "hating the British" was just one of the most basic operations.

Of course, in this timeline, the American public had quite a few objects of resentment—France, Spain, and Shinra were all enemies—but the British firmly held the top spot.

Even though everyone was now allies, it was difficult to reverse such deeply ingrained notions for the time being.

Pitt's ancestors had also come from England, but he was still a qualified American. Now, with such a poor performance from the British, it was natural to feel scorn.

Picking up the cigar in his hand and puffing out a cloud of smoke, Roosevelt waved his hand and said, "The British performance is indeed clumsy. However, the fall of Gleyer town does not greatly affect the defense of The British Isles.

For us, this is also a good thing. With this kind of event, I presume those fellows on Wall Street will no longer demand that we continue to tie ourselves to the British?"

Wall Street did not like Shinra's distinctive nationalism, but that didn't mean everyone was prepared to clash with Shinra to the end.

The fall of Gleyer town was not significant militarily but politically, it caused a tremendous shock.

Influenced by this event, Peru and Bolivia, which were originally neutral, had already declared their joining the Continental Alliance and had declared war on the Oceanic Alliance.

Within the Oceanic Alliance, the countries of Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay declared a ceasefire on the grounds of wanting to quickly restore world peace.

Both sides are now in ceasefire talks, and if there are no surprises, these three soy sauce parties are ready to jump ship.

As for Mexico and Colombia, who were being suppressed by the enemies, it's even more evident. The old governments have long since fallen, and the new governments have been bending their knees since they took office.

Even the troops The United Government sent to assist the two countries were disarmed by those two unruly fellows, together with the enemy.

What The United Government found most unbearable was the restless allied states; the dramatic turn of events gave the agricultural landowners in The United States a chance and they wanted to take the opportunity to expand their farms.

If it were just these, it wouldn't be intolerable. The key was that the farmers from the allied states were targeting The United Government.

There was no choice, the best land in the world was either in the allied states or The United States. If one wanted to develop a farm, aiming for the northern United States was the right choice.

Under such circumstances, anyone with a bit of brains knew that to continue entanglements with Britain would genuinely put The United Government at risk.

Those who could establish themselves on Wall Street were smart people. With their innate sharp judgement and nature of weighing pros and cons, Roosevelt didn't believe these folks would stubbornly play a deadly game with Shinra.

Secretary of State Pitt confidently replied, "Of course not. Those fellows are now too preoccupied with their own troubles.

They're too closely tied to the British. If Britannia falls, Wall Street will also suffer heavy losses.

I've heard they've already started withdrawing capital from London, but sadly the British aren't cooperating, and it's still at a standstill."

The Anglo-American capitalists defined with their actions "what capital without borders means".

British capital had significant investments in The United Government, while those financial magnates on Wall Street similarly had substantial financial assets in London.

London at this time was like the New York of the twenty-first century, drawing capital from all around the world. Any large financial institution held a significant amount of financial assets in London, such as stocks, bonds, futures, gold...

The only difference was that financial capital from other countries had yet to gain political influence, and they preferred to diversify their investments when they did.

The guys on Wall Street were in quite an awkward position because, disliking the many restrictions of the Shinra financial market, they frequently had heavy investments in London.

Especially after the outbreak of the World War, when the British Government issued national bonds multiple times to raise funds from the outside world,

due to an initial misjudgment, they arrived at the wrong conclusion. A large portion of the high-interest British bonds had been gobbled up by these fellows.

By the time they realized the risk and wanted to unload their positions, they couldn't find enough buyers for a while.

It wasn't just bonds—Wall Street was equally busy with commercial loans.

If one paid close attention, it would be discovered: the United States were the biggest creditors of British capital, while American capital was also a creditor to the British Government.

At first glance, it appeared to be triangular debt, but in reality, Anglo-American capital had already merged, truly embodying the idea of "you are part of me, and I am part of you."

In the original timeline, this was how the United States got dragged into it. Now, things were even more tragic, having boarded the thieves' ship in a daze and finding it impossible to get off.

...

It wasn't just the Americans who were panicking; Chile and Japan were also in a predicament, likewise finding it difficult to disembark.

Chile was troubled mainly because while they had been fraternizing with the enemy and the Vienna Government, they had run off to play with the British.

Now, with Peru and Bolivia having transformed into members of the Continental Alliance, Chile's situation suddenly became quite embarrassing.

The only consolation was that they hadn't gone all out in the earlier attack on Austrian South America but had just lingered around the periphery, not inflicting too much damage or casualties on the defending forces.

The less blood stained on their hands, the lighter the grudges they had caused, the greater the room for maneuver.

Comparatively, offending the Holy Roman Empire was not worth mentioning at all, next to the insignificant Peru and Bolivia.

Japan was in a real bind. Among the many members of the Oceanic Alliance, apart from the world's public enemy, the British, Japan had the most and the most significant enemies.

One could see from the ongoing Russo-Japanese War that if given the chance, Russia would definitely not let Japan off. Especially since the one in power was someone with an extreme hatred for Japan.

Having already offended second and third strongest members of the Continental Alliance was bad enough, but the Japanese Navy also took part in the previous naval battle of Malacca.

Even though they lost the battle and did not cause the Shinra Navy too much harm, they still inevitably came under the special scrutiny of the Vienna Government.

Having simultaneously offended the top three members of the Continental Alliance, the Japanese Government now wanted to jump ship but couldn't find any mediators.

The so-called "deterrence of the Continental Alliance through sacrificial spirit" was just a joke. A bloody fight to the end was indeed terrifying, but the Continental Alliance had many member states.

It wasn't just one country taking action; the nations shared the losses together. No matter how great the casualties required, once spread out among the countries, the burden was not so hard to accept.

In such a scenario, trying to play a defiant stance of "honorable defeat" could ultimately lead to real shattering.

As the international scene buzzed with activity, European media began to add fuel to the fire. All major media outlets had their own sources of information, which they seasoned with some creative embellishments and then published without hesitation.

Following the principle of "doing good deeds anonymously," as the Allied Forces' air force bombed The British Isles, they conveniently scattered the freshly printed newspapers below as well.

Even though the Oceanic Alliance, led by the British, was merely tottering and had not entirely crumbled, according to the newspapers, the Oceanic Alliance had already disbanded, leaving only Britannia and her die-hard allies resisting stubbornly.

Theoretically, such exaggerated political news was prohibited from publication in the Holy Roman Empire.

However, it was clearly an exception at present; the News Regulation Department directly issued a special approval letter, aiming at dismantling the British fighting spirit.

It was advantageous to leverage the long-established credibility of these newspapers to enhance the persuasiveness of the news and strike a blow to the British morale.

As for the problems that this might cause later on, those were minor details, entirely fixable afterward. Compared to winning the war as quickly as possible, they were truly negligible.

The Irish were the ones most agitated by this.

Having "waited for the stars and moon," they finally saw the opportunity arise with the decline of the Great Britain Empire. The chance for independence had appeared, and if they did not seize the moment to stir things up, it would be indefensible.

Since October, the Ireland region had become quite restless, with all sorts of restoration armies, guerrilla squads, and Resistance Organizations emerging.

The police composed of locals were clearly unable to keep the peace. To quickly restore order and stability on Ireland Island, the British Army stationed there was already running ragged.

Even the previously stable Scotland region was beginning to see stirrings of unrest.