Time flew by. As early as October, the mercenary forces assembled by Bulgaria had begun arriving in Southeast Asia, temporarily stationed on Java, the Dutchmen's last stronghold.
The situation was not as bad as Ferdinand had expected. The Japanese were not a charity organization—how could they truly help the people of Southeast Asia achieve independence?
The British and Dutch colonial governments had been driven out, but the insurgents' internal conflicts had also erupted. Could a regime that knew only destruction and not construction truly grow stronger?
Obviously, that was impossible. Thus, the struggle over direction became the fuse that ignited the insurgents' internal contradictions.
Those with foresight advocated using the coming rainy season to reorganize the insurgent forces, dismiss the old and weak, restore production, and establish a state.
Unfortunately, their voices carried too little weight. Other than establishing a state, every one of their proposals was ignored.
The insurgent army, riddled with competing factions, had rapidly transformed into one warlord clique after another. How could they possibly give up their armies for the sake of the power in their hands?
If the external threat had not yet completely vanished, it would not have been surprising even if they had broken out into civil war.
Moreover, the Japanese' main goal was merely to throw Southeast Asia into chaos and force the British to retreat in the face of difficulty. They had never truly intended to help the locals establish an independent nation—that was not in their interests!
Economically speaking, the enormous military expenditures the London government had poured into Southeast Asia would be impossible to recoup from the region within the next twenty or thirty years. If not for the British Empire's global strategic needs, they might already have abandoned their Southeast Asian colonies.
If they suffered another crushing defeat,