In the main hall of Qin State, Emperor Qin Yingduo was staring at a huge map. This map was the largest territory that Qin State had ever controlled.
But now, his territory has shrunk, and the area close to the Tang Empire has almost been dyed red.
Entering Shu, Wangdu... have now become critical front lines. Millions of troops are scattered across the vast territory, and a large amount of supplies and military expenditures must be spent every day to maintain them.
The Shu land was rich and Ying Duo was unwilling to give it up, but now to maintain control of the Shu land, a large number of troops were needed.
Each strategic point requires thousands of soldiers. If the numbers are spread like this, there will be no trace of hundreds of thousands of people, and this is only a small number.
He needed to cover Zhang Xuan, who was fighting in Chu, and prevent the Tang army from entering Shu, so he had to maintain an army of hundreds of thousands when entering Shu.
At the same time, in order to prevent the Tang army from landing, nearly a million troops were dispersed in the coastal areas of Shu. None of these troops could move, and they were all wasted.
If these troops simply cannot participate in the war, forget it... But in fact, the supplies these troops need to consume every day have become an amazing pressure.
Food needs to be supplied, military uniforms and bedding need to be arranged, these troops need barracks and quarters, all of which need to be recruited, and may cause various conflicts with local people.
Then what? Then Tang Jun didn't come! Millions of Qin soldiers eat their horses and chew them every day, spending countless money and food. This has become a burden that Qin cannot afford.
For the first time, Ying Duo realized how difficult it was to run a huge country: every place needed talents to operate, which greatly dispersed Qin's national power and talent reserves.
The power clenched into a fist cannot win, and the scattered power is wasted. Even if the scattered power is concentrated, there is no hope of winning. This has caused Ying Duo to suffer from severe insomnia.
"Your Majesty... the news you just sent, the old capital, has been lost." Ying Ke's voice sounded a little thin in the spacious hall. He lowered his voice because the news he reported was indeed not particularly good.
In fact, three days ago, the Tang Empire had announced that it had occupied the old capital. However, there were still some resisting Qin troops in the city, so the Qin State did not admit this matter.
But now, all the organized resistance forces have been annihilated, there is no gunfire inside the old capital, and the people have begun to return to their homes.
Under such circumstances, Qin had to admit that it had indeed lost its old capital. They rebuilt a defense line on the west side of the old capital, and Liu Zhian was still holding on to his riddled defense line.
"If you lose it, just throw it away... As long as Wangdu's defense line can be held," Ying Duo still did not take his eyes away. He was still staring at the map, his face looking a little gloomy.
The old city was occupied by the Tang army, and the civil servants and generals present were already mentally prepared. They knew that it was not easy for Liu Zhian to stay in the old capital for such a long time, and this result completely exceeded expectations.
Although it was partly due to the mines, Liu Zhian's deadly battle did play a certain role. Liu Zhian deserves credit for Wangdu's defense line being able to be established in front of him.
But now no one can clearly explain this credit. After all, Liu Zhian himself is now on the must-kill list of the Tang Empire.
Everyone is afraid of getting involved with Liu Zhian because everyone is afraid of being liquidated by Tang State in the future. The Wangdu defense line has high hopes from the Qin State. Their carefully prepared defense line can at least block the Tang army in this winter that is coming to an end.
"Where is General Liu now?" Ying Duo motioned to a general to point out the location of Liu Zhian's cluster for him. The other party quickly reached out and pointed at some areas in the wilderness.
Liu Zhian's cluster had actually been shattered. Some troops were surrounded on the position, and other troops had retreated to the front of the Wangdu defense line.
They are still continuing to fight, but in the cold wilderness, these troops no longer have much combat effectiveness. The Tang army was encircling and killing them, but the Qin army in the direction of Wangdu did not dare to step out of the fortifications to support their friendly forces.
There is no way, the Qin army has lost the courage to fight in the field. The defensive formation that Chen Li drew up at the Wangdu defense line is: "Resist constantly, defend the defense line to the end, never retreat, and reduce counterattacks."
This plan proved to be effective in the middle and late stages of the Battle of the Old Capital, and could slow down the Tang army's attack to the greatest extent. Therefore, the Qin defense forces in the direction of Wangdu basically did not make any preparations for counterattack.
On the other hand, the Qin army and their servant armies suffered too many losses in the battle of the old capital, especially the millions of Chinese troops who were mobilized. These troops had no combat effectiveness at all and would surrender and rebel at critical moments. They were unable to do so. use.
The Qin State had no better way to reuse them before. Now that the Qin army has somewhat calmed down, it naturally disdains to continue to associate with these servant armies.
Therefore, these defeated Dahua troops were not allowed to enter the Wangdu defense line, and were eventually blocked in place, becoming rogue bandits and prisoners of the Tang army.
According to the records of the Tang Army, they captured a total of more than 700,000 troops claiming to be the Dahua Army near the old capital. This number does not include the portion that was wiped out by the Tang Army.
In short, the battle of the old capital was completely over. The Tang army achieved a comprehensive victory. The Qin army had to retreat to Wangdu and regroup on the Wangdu defense line.
Yesterday, a rebellion broke out in Shu. This rebellion did not last long and was annihilated by the Qin army in just one day.
However, the identity of the participants in this rebellion made the Qin state panic: the surrendered officials of Shu colluded with the local Shu surrender generals and prepared to mobilize troops to kill the local Qin garrison and "welcome the king's division".
After receiving the news, the Qin State calmly surrounded the barracks of the Shu State Security Army, and then the other party cooperated and surrendered.
The rebellious generals were brought to justice, and local old Shu officials also committed suicide at home in fear of their crimes. Everything seemed to be going well, but Qin took this unsuccessful rebellion as a signal.
A signal that the Shu region is beginning to become unstable and is ready to fall to the Tang Empire at any time! After acquiescing to this signal, Qin began to seriously think about how they should deal with this matter.
This is also the reason why Qin State often holds meetings recently to discuss countermeasures. Ying Duo hoped to buy enough time on the battlefield so that he would have the capital to compete diplomatically with the Tang Empire.
(End of chapter)
