In the imperial capital of the Dahua Empire, after Zhao Ji left, Li Mingshun continued to hold on for a few days, and then he took the remaining troops and fled in a hurry out of the city that had no value in holding on.
Frankly speaking, fighting in the imperial capital had destroyed many neighborhood buildings in this ancient city. Li Mingshun felt that he was simply a sinner and had caused unnecessary losses to the city.
Seeing that calm had returned to the city, the Fengjiang rebels began to maintain order in the city, everything began to return to calm, and the local people finally got the peace they had been waiting for.
Some people curiously ran to the suburbs to see Toyoe's troops moving south and west. These troops are equipped with a large number of cars and tanks, and they look more combat effective than the previous Dahua troops.
After all, these troops have been strengthened to some extent, and the weapons and equipment drawn from the hundreds of thousands of troops who surrendered are of course huge in number.
Backed by the Blackwater Oilfield in the north of Dongqing, these Fengjiang troops are quite well supplied. Because the Blackwater Oilfield surrendered early, the facilities were not destroyed and it continued to produce. It just replenished the gasoline produced to Zhao Yu's Fengjiang Army.
"It seems...that bastard Zhao Ji will never come back again." A businessman saw the Fengjiang troops in sight and said to his friends around him.
His friend also nodded and agreed with him: "Yes, look at what bad things he did when he returned to the imperial capital?"
"If Zhao Yu becomes emperor, our life will be easier in the future." The businessman continued to say.
They all look forward to Zhao Yu coming back to inherit the throne, because Zhao Yu has always supported trade with the Tang Empire and can often get some good investment projects from the Datang Empire.
Therefore, there are many businessmen in the Dahua Empire who support Zhao Yu, and many ministers also prefer Zhao Yu who is generous.
On the road in front of them, trucks produced by the Tang Dynasty formed a neat queue one after another. The trucks were piled with various supplies, and some of them were wearing military uniforms of the Dahua Army. Soldier.
The arms of these soldiers were wrapped with white cuffs. Because they were in such a hurry, these troops did not have time to wait for the Tang Empire to help them change their clothes. Therefore, they can only wear old military uniforms to fight, which increases the possibility of them being accidentally injured on the battlefield.
But there is nothing that can be done, because the troops who are willing to stay where they are and wait for the Tang Empire to receive them are actually still staying where they are. Those who returned to the imperial capital are all people who hope to return to Dahua no matter what.
After the best-equipped troops passed by, the troops that followed drove a variety of cars: the Dahua Empire also manufactured its own trucks, and also purchased some cars produced by Cyric and Gobl.
At that time, these cars were equipped to the frontline troops in order to make up for the loss. Now these troops have returned to the imperial capital, but their equipment is chaotic and outdated, and they look a bit messy and backward.
A large number of cars and countless soldiers were congested on the road. The railway had not been fully restored due to the war. There were people watching everywhere, and there were endless camps further away.
In the imperial capital, some engineers, working with Dahua locals, are already repairing the streets destroyed by the war. They filled the craters in the ground, began to clear the remains of collapsed houses, and carried the bodies they found out of the city.
The water plant has resumed work. The power plant to the east is still under repair because it was blown up by Li Mingshun, but the power plant to the west has restored part of its power supply.
Most areas in the city are still dark at night, but order is guaranteed because of military patrols. At least the gunshots have disappeared, and crimes such as robberies have been effectively curbed.
In the imperial capital, Luo Xiao chose Zhao Ji's "Prince's Mansion" as his headquarters because of fear of trouble. The place is spacious enough to accommodate a large amount of radio equipment.
In the relatively clean house, an officer from the Tang Empire's Military Advisory Group was reporting the latest battle situation to Luo Xiao, the actual commander of the Fengjiang Army: "Beiku has surrendered, and our people have arrived there. , they are very cooperative because they don’t have the capital to resist.”
The surrender of Beikku, a city north of the imperial capital, was completely expected. There is only one railway in this city connected to the imperial capital. The imperial capital was occupied and controlled by Fengjiang army, so Beiku naturally had no choice but to surrender.
"There are about 5,000 Dahua troops in Beiku. Their equipment is not very good. They can only maintain local security." The officer added another explanation: "They are all equipped with Cyric 1 bolt-action rifles. of light infantry, not even a few trucks.”
In fact, the equipment of the Dahua soldiers stationed in the Blackwater Oilfield is similar: the Dahua Empire cannot keep all the troops up to date with the change of equipment. In fact, they only care about the weapons and equipment of the main force, and few people ask what the second-line troops are holding.
Seeing that Luo Xiao did not continue to speak, the officer continued to report: "The Dahua army in Wangdu has been defeated. They received an order from Zhao Ji, asking them to reinforce southward at all costs. Because there is no railway support, many generals in the army are unwilling Leave home to carry out Zhao Ji’s orders.”
This force is actually the force sent by Dahua to reinforce the imperial capital from the northwest. Originally there were about 150,000 troops in this force, but after arriving at Wangdu, they heard the news of the "fall" of the imperial capital.
Not knowing what to do for a while, the reinforcements immediately fell into panic. Some people thought that they should go south to Qinwang, some people thought that they should return the same way, and some people advocated simply surrendering.
In short, everyone had their own ideas, which directly led to the 150,000-strong army going their own way, turning the subsequent actions into a farce.
The Tang Empire officer who only listened to the report continued: "They broke up on the road south from Wangdu to Xiqing. About 50,000 people continued south to Xiqing, and 100,000 people returned to Wangdu... Now these Wangdu people The troops chose to surrender and they were willing to fight for Zhao Yu."
"That's good news. At least we don't have to worry about Xiqing's garrison strength increasing to 250,000." Luo Xiao grinned and told a joke.
The officer smiled with the other staff officers and civilian officers, then pointed to a city in the north on the map and said: "The defenders of Bingshuo City sent electricity and recognized Zhao Yu as the Emperor of Great China. They are willing to submit to the new The emperor is loyal, and Zhao Yu is sending someone to take over command.”
"He sent people? Can the people he sent do a good job in the handover?" The staff officer beside Luo Xiao snorted disapprovingly. He had deep doubts about Zhao Yu's ability to employ people.
Frankly speaking, without the help of Xu Guo and the efforts of the Tang Empire's intelligence department, Zhao Yu's actual level may not be higher than Zhao Ji.
Luo Xiao shrugged his shoulders and laughed easily: "We don't have to worry about that. He can let whoever he wants to go. If there is trouble, he will handle it himself. Our agreement does not include helping him suppress the rebellion."
He also felt that it would be better if Zhao Yu caused some trouble: anyway, the Tang Empire would definitely be the one to gain in the end.
After laughing, the officer who introduced the situation moved his finger further to the west, where is Daxiguan, the western center of the Great China Empire: "The troops in Daxiguan are still swaying. They are too far away from us, so it seems I want to see the limelight before talking about it.”
If Shahun is the westernmost large city of the Dahua Empire, then Daxiguan is the "fortress" on the western side of the Dahua Empire that is easy to defend but difficult to attack.
The Dahua Empire has more than 200,000 troops stationed there all year round to guard against the increasingly powerful and capable Qin State to the west.
"The Qin State is very honest. They were afraid of our attitude, so they did not attack Shahun. The Shahun defenders were very aware of their situation and sent a message to Zhao Yu to express their surrender." Speaking of Shahun, everyone's There was a hint of joy on their faces.
If the four northwest cities can be successfully handed over to Zhao Yu in the end, then a large part of their work can be said to have been completed.
Among the remaining cities, only 6 in the southern part of the Dahua Empire are not in Zhao Yu's hands. Capturing these six cities would mean that the Civil War in Great China was completely over.
As long as the civil war in the Dahua Empire ends, Zhao Yu must fulfill his promise, downgrade the Dahua Empire to the Dahua Kingdom, and cede one-third of the land to the Tang Empire...
Therefore, many officers became optimistic: "After Shahun is under control, all the northwest of Dahua has fallen into our hands. As long as there is no trouble, we will be able to deliver missions soon."
Luo Xiao reminded these optimistic officers that they still have many battles to fight: "It's early! Zhao Jie has built a defense line in Pingfeng, relying on Shanchong and Jutian to stabilize the position. If you want to kill this backer king, it is not It's easy."
He praised his opponent and gave him a fair evaluation: "Li Mingshun is also a visionary. Instead of retreating to Wangdu, they went to Xiqing. Now they are guarding Xiqing and Caili and entering the three cities of Shu. , the overall defense width has been reduced, and Zhao Jie has become a neighbor."
Being able to have the courage to abandon the northwest where there are more cities and turn around and escape to the southwest where there are fewer cities really makes it more difficult for Toyoe's troops to attack southward.
But in Luo Xiao's view, this was just a desperate struggle. Zhao Ji and Li Mingshun who fled to Xiqing, plus the areas controlled by Zhao Jie, totaled only 6 big cities.
But Zhao Yu, on the other hand, does not count the areas that will be ceded to the Tang Empire. There are as many as 9 remaining cities, and he is crushing the southern region in terms of industrial manufacturing.
Because they relied heavily on the technology of the Tang Empire, as well as the parts and various special materials provided by the Tang Empire, the industries of the Great China Empire were basically located along the railway lines.
(End of chapter)
