Wizard Earl

Chapter 261 The Formation of the East Hoy Company (Part 1)

This absurd plan, which now seems like a betrayal of territorial sovereignty and a traitorous act, caused a sensation among the upper echelons of the empire at the time. Even more unbelievable is that the "Rhine Plan" received the approval of more than 70 percent of the imperial generals at the joint military meeting at the time!

After learning that Emperor Raul the Great, like himself, was a time traveler, Connor carefully studied the history of that period. Coupled with the abundance of historical materials from that era, Connor developed his own theories about why the "Rhine Project" became so popular.

In that era, Emperor Raul's new army had just swept across the Odin tribes on the Odin Ice Plains. However, because the Kaman people were unable to adapt to the harsh natural environment of the Odin Ice Plains, the Kaman Empire's army could not stay there for long. So even after defeating the Odin people, the Kaman Empire's army had to withdraw to its homeland and station itself on the border.

The Odin people, who were overwhelmed by Emperor Raul's new army, felt the crisis for the first time. They quickly abandoned the tribal organizational form and, after a bloody internal integration, they established the Odin Empire, modeled after the Kaman Empire. However, unlike the Kaman Empire, which is similar to a constitutional monarchy, the Odin Empire is more like a centralized monarchy, where the emperor has the final say in the entire country.

The Kingdom of Persis was a theocratic kingdom. Although it was called a kingdom, it did not have a king. Instead, it followed the example of the Kingdom of Kaman by establishing a prime minister who controlled the country's administrative power and was directly responsible to the Pope, the supreme leader of the Kingdom of Persis.

When the Rhine Project was proposed, both the Odin Empire and the Kingdom of Persis had their own internal problems. The Odin Empire had just progressed from a tribal system to a centralized one, and various internal issues arose. The Kingdom of Persis, on the other hand, was in a mess because the old pope was nearing the end of his life, and a new pope could not be established for a long time. The internal factional struggle over the issue of succession to the pope was also a complete mess.

Connor believes it was precisely this external situation that led Reinkel, then Minister of Military Affairs of the Kaman Empire, to propose the insane plan of selling off the sovereignty of disputed border regions to reach a peace treaty, then leaving the border undefended and focusing all efforts on conquering the continent of Hoy!

In Reinkel's plan, if his "Rhine Project" succeeded, with the support of resources from the continent of Hoy, the Kaman Empire might be able to reach the heights of the ancient Byzantine Empire... However, unfortunately, Reinkel and his "Rhine Project" were directly rejected by his emperor, Raul the Great.

As for the reasons why Emperor Raul rejected the Rhine Project, historians have made many speculations. One of the more authoritative theories is that although ships at that time had developed steam power, they were still primitive. The journey from the New World to the Kaman Empire would take at least a year, and the Stormy Ocean between them was in a period of instability that occurred once every hundred years, with large-scale storms occurring every few days. Of the 150,000 people who set out from the mainland, how many would survive after a year's voyage to the New World? Even the most optimistic person would only believe that half would survive!

Most importantly, once they reached the New World, after a year of sailing, no one knew what kind of fighting strength the remaining troops would retain.

After rejecting Reinkel's "Rhine Project," Emperor Raul the Great put forward his own Hoy Strategy. His idea was simple: the imperial government would not directly lead, but would instead encourage the organization of civilian forces to conduct commercial activities on the Hoy continent, selling the surplus industrial products of the Kaman Empire to the Hoy continent, and then transporting the raw materials produced on the Hoy continent back to the Kaman Empire, forming a virtuous cycle.

Emperor Raul organized the major merchant guilds and nobles of the empire to jointly establish a company to manage Hoy. Because the navigators of the Kaman Empire discovered the eastern part of the Hoy continent, this company was called the "East Hoy Company". From then on, the East Hoy Company became the Kaman Empire's representative of interests in the New World. From the very beginning, it was a tool for ambitious people!

In the early days of the East Hoy Company, due to the slow development of the Empire's shipping industry and means of transport, shipping from the Kaman Empire to the Hoy continent was extremely risky and inconvenient. Therefore, even though the East Hoy Company wanted to directly intervene in the rule of the local Hoy people, it was simply impossible. It could only support the Hoy tribes by providing them with weapons and medicine, allowing them to fight amongst themselves. This not only brought them enormous economic benefits but also exacerbated the hatred between the local Hoy tribes, preventing them from uniting. This laid a solid foundation for the East Hoy Company to later realize its ambitions.

Eighty years ago, technological advancements changed the fate of the Hoy people. With the tremendous progress made in the Empire's research on steam engine power, all sectors of the Kaman Empire were greatly affected, with the shipping industry being the first to be impacted. After the technological transformation was completed, the speed and stability of all shipping vehicles were greatly improved. This directly resulted in a significant reduction in the shipping time from the Kaman Empire's mainland to the Hoy continent, from one year to three months. Moreover, the stability and safety of ships were also greatly improved, and ordinary storms on the vast Storm Ocean could hardly shake the ships.

The reduced shipping time and increased safety from the empire's homeland to the continent of Hoy undoubtedly made more and more people interested in exploring the continent. At the time, the social background of the Kaman Empire, where class stratification was solidified and it was becoming increasingly difficult for ordinary people to rise in society, also promoted the Kaman Empire's colonization of the New World.

The East Hoy Company, which amassed immense wealth through trade between the Hoy Continent and the Kaman Empire, was the biggest beneficiary of this colonial wave. They offered generous conditions to talented individuals whose abilities were not being utilized for various reasons, inviting them to the Hoy Continent and providing them with the East Hoy Company as a platform to fully display their talents. In less than ten years, the East Hoy Company's strength grew tremendously, transforming from a mere merchant on the Hoy Continent into a behemoth there!

Having greatly increased its power, the East Hoy Company began to reveal its long-hidden ferocious fangs to the Hoy people. No longer content with purchasing raw materials from the local Hoy people, they began to directly use their overwhelming advantage in weaponry to begin their conquest of the Hoy continent.

(End of this chapter)