Time flickered by and it was now 1912. In the previous life, this year could truly be called a season of turmoil, with major events erupting on almost every continent.

In Asia, the Far East Empire’s internal contradictions fully exploded; in Europe, the Balkan War broke out; in America, there was the Argentine labor movement and the United States presidential election; in Africa, Black indigenous peoples launched resistance movements against the Portuguese.

Of course, the last of these is now impossible. Of the two main actors in that incident, one has been driven back to Europe by East Africa, and the other, worn down over the long term by East Africa, has completely lost its bite.

At this moment, what the East African Government is most focused on is clearly the social transformation unfolding inside the Far East Empire. As East Africa’s most important market, any internal change within the Far East Empire could have a significant impact on East Africa.

Moreover, the Huaihai Economic Zone, where East Africa’s influence within the Far East Empire runs deepest, occupies a rather delicate position. It can be called a transitional belt between the central authority of the Far East Empire and the southern forces. So, in order to prevent the Huaihai Economic Zone from becoming a flashpoint for clashes between the two camps, the East African Government must keep a constant eye on political developments in the Far East Empire.

To this end, at the end of 1911, when the situation was already quite tense, East Africa dispatched diplomats to "negotiate" with both sides.

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As a state, East Africa’s determination to defend its own interests is unshakable. Even Ernst himself will not, because of personal emotions, excessively interfere in East Africa’s foreign policy at the national level.

Xuzhou.

Although the economic core of the Huaihai Economic Zone is Jiaozhou, East Africa’s influence over the zone is exercised mainly through Xuzhou.

For this reason, at the beginning of 1912, the East African Consulate in Xuzhou summoned all the local forces within the Huaihai Economic Zone for a meeting.

Mannheim, Consul General of the East African Consulate in Xuzhou, said to the various forces present: "Within the Huaihai Economic Zone, no power should display an obvious political leaning toward either the southern or northern side, nor should it intervene in disputes between the southern and northern governments. In this political upheaval sweeping the Far East Empire, we stand only with the eventual victor."

Right now, minds are restless throughout the Far East Empire, and the same holds true within the Huaihai Economic Zone. The Huaihai Economic Zone can be described as a highly intricate place.

As a trade cooperation zone, over the past few decades East Africa has indeed played the leading role, but it has ultimately been unable to wield deterrent power like other countries. Therefore, the East African Government can only temporarily suppress internal contradictions in the region through negotiation.

After all, the Huaihai Economic Zone lies at the junction of five provinces—Jiangsu, Shandong, Henan, Anhui, and Hebei—and even just at the official level one has to deal with five provincial governments.

Mannheim said, "I trust everyone here is well aware of the devastation brought by war. One can say that in every large-scale internal war of the Far East Empire, the area that suffers the most destruction is the Huaihai Region. Ever since your country has had written records, this place has been a natural ancient battlefield."

"And in the last century, the upheavals and the Yellow River floods practically turned the entire Huaihai Region into a wasteland, so that today the whole Huaihai Region is among the economically weakest coastal areas of the Far East Empire."

Of course, that description applies to the Huaihai Region; the Huaihai Economic Zone is not quite the same. After all, the eastern part of the Shandong Peninsula does not belong to the Huaihai Region; it has only been forcibly included because East Africa, centering on Jiaozhou, carries out trade activities from there.

Nor is the Huaihai Region as downtrodden as Mannheim makes it sound. After all, so much time has passed that the region’s economy has largely recovered, and through trade with East Africa, Germany, and Austria-Hungary, its economic level has in fact surpassed the prewar era.

Unlike other colonizers, East Africa does not employ a variety of methods to crush local industry and commerce, so within the Huaihai Economic Zone a large number of national capitalists of the Far East Empire have actually emerged.

Of course, as an industrial Great Power, East Africa inevitably holds the advantage in local trade. That is nearly unavoidable; it is impossible to expect East Africa to truly damage its own interests and "bleed itself dry" to support the development of national capital in the Far East. Being relatively fairer than other imperialist countries is already the utmost benevolence and righteousness.

Mannheim continued: "Economic discourse power is political discourse power. The power you now possess can be said to derive from East African support. Without it, you would be utterly unable to compete with the vested interests in the Zhujiang River or Yangtze River Basin."

"If war breaks out in the Huaihai Economic Zone and the tragedies of the 1850s and 1860s are replayed, it will be detrimental to you and extremely detrimental to us East Africa as well. Therefore, maintaining regional stability is a shared responsibility for all of us."

"And don’t entertain any little schemes. Other great powers are not as easy to negotiate with as East Africa. You have frequent dealings with the United Kingdom and Americans, and you know full well the true face of the great powers. East Africa counts as one of the most friendly countries toward China."

"So, in the midst of the great upheaval in your country today, you should keep in step with us, and refrain from lightly meddling in the Far East Empire’s internal political or military conflicts."

East Africa’s frank discussion with these local strongmen actually aligned with the local political forces’ own thinking. In fact, just as Mannheim said, cooperation with East Africa at least gives them the right to "eat meat," unlike other compradore cliques, who can only drink a bit of soup.

And everyone has eyes to see what the Huaihai Region’s economy used to look like. One could say that, aside from Wannan and Jiangxi—two places that were completely reduced to blank white territory—the Huaihai Region suffered the most.

East Africa may be unreasonable at times, but over these past decades it has maintained basic stability across the entire Huaihai Region. On the one hand, large numbers of refugees emigrated to East Africa, easing local tensions; on the other hand, the development of local industry has made the Huaihai Region’s economy even more prosperous than before the war.

So, by and large, everyone agreed with Mannheim’s words. If they can develop peacefully, who would actually prefer war?

Of course, the main reason is that the country standing behind Mannheim commands genuine respect. As a world Great Power, East Africa’s deterrent force is still quite formidable.

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In addition to negotiations with the local strongmen, the East African Government also engaged in a round of "friendly" exchanges with both the southern and northern governments.

"Within the Huaihai Economic Zone covered by the agreements between our country and yours, large-scale warfare is not permitted. If any force brings the flames of war into the Huaihai Economic Zone, East Africa will not sit idly by. At the same time, the East African Government will not proactively interfere in your respective military operations in other areas."

In short, East Africa wants to ensure that the Huaihai Economic Zone within the Far East Empire remains in a state of peace; this demand is actually not excessive.

In fact, up to now the primary internal contradictions within the Far East Empire are no longer as intense as they were last year. The southern and northern governments have already reached some covert understandings, so what East Africa is doing will not have any major impact on the Far East Empire’s politics.

As for why Ernst wants to guarantee stability in the Huaihai Economic Zone, the primary goal is actually to preserve the Far East Empire’s industry and economy in the Huaihai Region.

And Ernst’s purpose in doing so is also to dig a pit for Japan in the future. In his view, East Africa will definitely, of its own accord, give up its interests in the Far East sooner or later. After all, East Africa’s core strength lies in the Indian Ocean, Nanyang, and the South Atlantic, not in Far Eastern waters.

One could say that, aside from the United States, no country is in a position to contain the explosive growth of Japan’s military power in the Far East in recent years. So it is better simply to bolster native forces of the Far East Empire to cause trouble for Japan later on.

After all, in terms of naval strength alone, East Africa is not much stronger than Japan, and East Africa must also guard its own doorstep in the Indian Ocean and South Atlantic, making it even less possible to spare forces to confront Japan.

Moreover, the United States and the United Kingdom—those two countries thick as thieves—both adopt an indulgent attitude toward Japan. There is even a high probability that in the future they will use Japan to help them wipe out East African interests in the Far East Empire. Therefore East Africa must always be prepared to abandon its interests in the Far East. In this time period, it is very difficult for East Africa alone to keep Japan in check, especially when Japan has the United Kingdom and the United States—two top-tier powers in no way inferior to East Africa—standing behind it.