Alien Arms Empire

Chapter 923 Changes in the 924-day moat

There is a point that has been ignored by the senior officials of the Dahua Empire, and that is that Zhao Yu has his own connections in many regions with the support of the Tang Empire.

These people may not dare to come up with any tricks at ordinary times, but once they have the opportunity, they may make some choices of their own.

Shanping was still under the control of the Dahua Empire before, so the army in Guiguang naturally had to see the situation clearly before making its own decision. But now that the mountain screen is lost, many people's minds have become active.

 It is better to provide charcoal when needed than to add icing on the cake. Things like burning a cold stove can only be useful at critical moments, right? Zhao Zheng set an example in a sense, so many generals figured out many things at once.

The Battle of Guiguang is a concentrated expression of this idea: some generals who were already shaken took Shanping's rebellion as a signal. They were originally more inclined to Zhao Yu, but now they just changed their direction when the wind direction changed.

After learning that Shanping was occupied by Fengjiang Army, several divisions from Guiguang raided Guiguang that night. The local defenders were disrupted by the sudden attack and did not know what happened. The defenders could only be beaten passively.

Their commander Zhao Jie is still on the road and has no idea what happened. Amidst the chaos, some generals misjudged the situation. They believed that the Great China Empire had run out of strength.

As a result, more and more rebel armies were forming, and some of the rebel armies even fought with each other. Everyone said that they were good people, and everyone held up the banner of righteousness. The battle lasted until dawn, and it did not end even when Fengjiang's troops approached.

Then the whole thing became magical: the Guiguang defenders on the outside immediately surrendered to Fengjiang troops, and then the troops in the city also handed over their weapons.

Those real Dahua troops who were unwilling to surrender had to start to retreat because they had basically lost the conditions to stick to Guiguang.

 The grain warehouse was burned down by troops who did not know where they came from, and most of the ammunition warehouse was also lost. The peripheral artillery has surrendered. If they don't leave, they may be surrounded by the rebel forces and the Toyoe Army.

 In desperation, more than 200,000 Dahua troops retreated and left Guiguang in two groups. About 150,000 troops retreated westward to the direction of Shanchong, and more than 50,000 people fled to the direction of Jiange in panic.

At this point, the Great China Empire was unable to recover from the Guiguang-Shanping battle. The seemingly hopeless battle situation for the Fengjiang Army turned out to be bright and clear within a few days.

The Fengjiang Army that controls Guiguang can threaten Wanliang City, the important food center of the Dahua Empire, to the north, Shanchong, a crucial central city, to the west, and Jiange and Nanku to the south are already within their grasp. …

 For a time, the situation of the entire Fengjiang Army was excellent, and even Fengjiang Street, which had become the front line, had a somewhat festive atmosphere.

 Zhao Kai ignored an important factor: people's hearts! Many bureaucrats in the Dahua Empire support Zhao Yu, but there is only one reason that prevents them from turning to Zhao Yu, and that is the situation.

Since the Dahua Empire is fighting around Fengjiang, everyone is naturally optimistic about the Dahua Empire. At this time, no one dares to make a casual choice.

 But once Fengjiang has captured an important city and is in a strong situation, these people will immediately start to consider whether they need to find a way out for themselves.

 When I think about it, things will naturally change. While Zhao Kai was still urging Zhao Jie to seize Guiguang as soon as possible and save the situation, Jiange and Naku also successively announced their surrender.

The reason is that Guiguang's defenders were defeated at Jiange, and suddenly Jiange became the front line. This place was originally adjacent to the Tang Empire, and the hundreds of thousands of heavy troops deployed on the border had to eat and pay.

Now that Guiguang has been lost, supplies have been completely cut off. The troops deployed on the border immediately have no food, and ammunition cannot withstand consumption.

 Because the ammunition previously stored here was transported to Guiguang for convenience and used to exterminate the rebels. Now that it is all lost, the hundreds of thousands of troops in the direction of Jiange no longer have the capital to fight.

Therefore, the troops here chose the most suitable method: surrendering to Fengjiang Army together, wouldn't they have food and drink?

In any case, they will wait until the Chinese army comes back to surrender. Who can blame them, the border troops who have no ability to move in the first place?

In order to restrict the border troops, the Dahua Empire previously distributed very little food and few transportation vehicles such as trucks. Therefore, these troops stationed on the border were generally not suitable for field operations and were very troublesome to move.

Now something is really wrong. Not only are they unable to immediately engage in field battles to save the situation, they have even become a burden themselves.

 The result is what it is today: 250,000 troops near Jiange all surrendered. Counting the 50,000 who were routed here, there are 300,000!

With so many troops surrendering, places like Nanku, where there were almost no troops stationed, naturally surrendered as well.

 What’s interesting is that Nanku pretended to be loyal, and they only changed their banners when Fengjiang’s envoys arrived.

Fengjiang, which was originally an isolated city, turned into a five-city alliance in less than 15 days—from top to bottom, they are Fengjiang, Shanping, Guiguang, Jiange, and Nanku.

It's not just as simple as four more cities, there are more Fengjiang rebels than more than 400,000 troops who surrendered at Pingjiange in Guiguang Mountain! Of course, if you count Guiguang’s food and supplies, the tanks, heavy weapons, ammunition and strategic depth in the two places... then Fengjiang got too much in one go.

Even from a strategic point of view, Fengjiang not only gained substantial resources, but also gained an illusory victory: now the foundations of the Great China Empire are shaken in many places, and there is even a vague trend of needing to use troops to suppress it.

Even though he didn't want to admit it, Zhao Kai still knew that he was out of luck - he wanted to use Shanping as bait to trap Fengjiang Army, but he ignored the influence of "power" on the entire Great China Empire.

Now that the big mistake has been made, if I don't make up for it quickly, the situation may become even more uncontrollable.

So Zhao Kai mobilized troops and generals. On the one hand, he mobilized troops from all sides to strengthen the defenders of Hezhe and Shanchong. On the other hand, he ordered Zhao Chen to stabilize and capture Fengjiang as soon as possible!

 Because if Zhao Chen can capture Fengjiang now, then everything will be blocked from the Great China Empire, blocking the Tang Empire's material transportation route, and he will still have the possibility of victory in the Fengjiang Civil War.

 But if his order could be effective, Zhao Chen would not have to fight so **** the front line. In fact, after being reinforced by hundreds of thousands of troops, Zhao Yu's strength has been unprecedentedly strengthened.

 At present, there are more than 200,000 Fengjiang troops guarding Guiguang, and their overall combat effectiveness is not bad. Their commander is Luo Xiao himself, so there is no problem.

 Qian Jinhang took the materials from the Tang Empire southward and was reorganizing the Dahua border troops in the direction of Jiange. These troops cannot participate in the war yet, but they can be expected in the future.

The only disadvantage is Fengjiang, but the troops stationed here have been replaced by foreign corps such as dwarves, elves and goblins. Their combat effectiveness is a headache for the Dahua defenders.

On the whole, Fengjiang's troops are relatively stable, so if Zhao Chen and Zhao Jie want to do something, the chance is actually not great.

 …

On the border of the Tang Empire, in the direction of Zangjian Gorge, a farmer who was cultivating his field raised his head and looked at the truck transporting special parts in the distance.

The size of these trucks is indeed huge, and the large parts carried behind them are really curious - each of these steel parts is as big as a room, and it looks very spectacular.

"Village chief, what are these things for?" Throughout the morning, he saw several cars passing by, each carrying such strange parts. The old farmer finally couldn't help but curiously asked the villagers passing by his fields. long.

The village chief passed by with his hands behind his back. He was happy about the good weather this year and the good food growth in his village. When someone asked him, he was in a mood to answer: "The consul came here this morning and said it was parts of the bridge."

"Bridge? Where to build the bridge?" The old farmer looked confused and continued to ask.

The village chief pointed to the mountains in the distance: "We are planning to build a bridge in Zangjian Gorge, spanning from east to west. In the future, we will be able to connect directly to Jiange."

"Ah? Is this possible? Zangjian Gorge, isn't Zangjian Gorge a place of Great China?" The old farmer was stunned. He looked at the mountains in the distance and couldn't believe his ears.

"It's said in the newspaper that from now on we will be friendly with the Great China Empire for generations. That prince named Zhao Yu agrees to let us build the bridge. From now on, our place may become a transportation thoroughfare or something. Good times are here. It's behind." The village chief thought about the future and walked further and further.

From the village chief's point of view, as long as the bridge is really connected, they will soon build roads, railways and highways, and then his place will really become a traffic artery.

This is a great thing that I never dreamed of before. It connects to Tengyun City and Wangchun City to the east, to Nanfengkou to the south, and in the future to Jiange directly to the west... It is simply a geomantic treasure.

If you can build a train station in the village and open trade with neighboring countries, then you can quickly form a city here, just like Fengjiang!

Thinking about it this way, I, as the village chief, might be able to get promoted again and become a city lord in the future...

Thinking of this, the village chief looked at the trucks passing by, and his eyes became much more friendly.

The trucks carrying a large number of bridge parts are passing here and converging towards the Zangjian Gorge, which was originally controlled by the Dahua Empire.

Without obstruction, this bridge will be built soon, and with this bridge, Jiange and Nanku will no longer be a closed mountain col.

 (End of this chapter)