Munitions Empire-Chapter 1113 - 1034 falling shells
Du Jia is feeling somewhat nervous now, for he holds too many Dahua Empire high officials in his hands, and he does not know if he truly has the assurance to protect so many important targets.
In fact, he had previously sought out Minister of War of the Dahua Empire, Shen Chuan, but Shen Chuan still hasn’t shown up in the safety zone he arranged. He also sent people to look for him, but has yet to receive any report back.
Theoretically speaking, everyone should show face to the Great Tang Empire, but showing face is one thing; if a real accident happens, that’s another matter.
Within the safety zone set up by the Great Tang Empire in the north of the city, Chu Muzhou is discussing the current situation with Chen Jing and Wang Yucái. They all believe that if Li Mingshun cannot defeat Zhao Jie quickly, the ownership of the Imperial Capital would indeed be hard to determine.
"Clearly, Zhao Jie’s reinforcements are stable, Li Mingshun is a bit slow in mobilizing troops from other places, as for Zhao Ji… better not mention him." Although Chen Jing, as the Chief of Staff, does not have a keen military sense, he currently holds too much intelligence in his hands.
Silver Fox provided information about almost everything happening nearby: Zhao Ji abandoned the front lines and returned to the Imperial Capital, which seemed quick, but his sustainment is really insufficient.
Zhao Yu is right behind him. If Zhao Chen could restrain Zhao Yu, Zhao Ji might have had a chance, but just now, they received a message from the Great Tang Empire that Zhao Chen’s forces have surrendered.
Now, not counting Zhao Chen’s troops, just the forces pressing over from the direction of Fengjiang already exceed 300,000. Zhao Ji’s rearguard areas of Xiajian and Dongqing are severely unstable, and he basically can’t mobilize any military strength.
"You can’t blame Zhao Chen for this. If I were sold out like this, my heart would be utterly broken too," Wang Yucái said without any reservations, as he now already feels he is no longer a subject of the Dahua Empire.
Consider his whole life, bustling about day and night for the Dahua Empire, making bricks without straw—The Dahua Empire was already out of money, how much effort did he, the Minister of Revenue, put in just to maintain it until today, who knows?
Before Zhao Kai left, no matter what, he was still a subject of the Dahua Empire; a monk hits the bell day by day, and he, as Minister of Revenue, had to do his job no matter what.
Now that he could sit here, it already represents his attitude: Since he has already changed allegiance, there’s no need to cover it up anymore.
He had wanted to say these words much earlier, but always held back due to decency. Now that he speaks out, it carries somewhat a hint of spitefulness: "Before, they tricked Qian Jinhang, and tricked General Feng Kezhi, sure… those are ministers of foreign clans, I understand your suspicions, but the battle at Fengjiang originally already had the advantage, yet they tricked Zhao Chen... Such a court, if not overthrown, would truly be against common sense!"
Actually, Chen Jing probably holds the same view: At that time, Zhao Chen had already started a fierce attack on Fengjiang. Shanping was still in Zhao Zheng’s hands, and the Dahua Empire was already hopeful of victory, yet they changed their minds and allowed Shanping to fall into the hands of the rebels.
The direct result of Zhao Kai adopting Zhao Jie’s strategy was the surrender of Zhao Zheng’s forces in Shanping; a defeat like a crumbling mountain directly affected Guiguang: Sword Pavilion and Southern Storehouse were successively lost, not only wasting hundreds of thousands of troops for nothing but also suddenly revitalized the rebel situation.
Taking into account the result of Zhao Jie’s usurpation now, it inevitably leads to wild speculations! Who knows if Zhao Jie had any private intentions of rebellion when he proposed the strategy to abandon Shanping?
"What’s the use of talking about this now... the city... I fear it’s going to be in chaos for a long time," said Chu Muzhou, whose worries have already shifted to the future of his Chu family, as at the moment of his decision, he had already placed himself in the position of the Tang people. fɾeewebnoveℓ.co๓
Every person has their own political aspirations, and Chu Muzhou is such a person. After talking with Du Jia and others, Chu Muzhou has taken up "unite all Tang people across the world" as his political ambition.
He once served as Prime Minister in the Dahua Empire, dreaming of revitalizing the Dahua Empire, sweeping across all under heaven to unify the Hua Clan, and making the Dahua Empire the true master of the Western Continent.
Now, the Great Tang Empire has shown him the dawn, giving him the opportunity to realize his dreams. Moreover, from every aspect, the Great Tang Empire appears to be a better option than the Dahua Empire.
Except for the fact that the Great Tang Empire abolished landlords, which made Chu Muzhou, an Old Bureaucrat, somewhat uncomfortable, Tang Mo and his Great Tang Empire were indeed the best choice for Chu Muzhou.
Wang Yucái, on the other hand, is not so noble; he just wants to see what the concept of five trillion in the account books looks like: he has managed the finances for the Dahua Empire for thirty years and has never seen that much money.
As a Minister managing finances, he really wants to experience firsthand what it feels like to have an amount of money that he can never spend up, and then casually throw out some to influence the global financial system.
Chen Jing decided to take a position in the Great Tang Empire for reasons similar to Wang Yucái; he had worked in the Ministry of Works all his life and had also been aggrieved all his life.
His various proposals such as constructing water conservancy projects, laying roads, building bridges and dams... the most common responses he heard were: "No money, scram, shut up... "
In short, almost all the projects he applied for were rejected, and the thing Wang Yucái did the most was to wave his hand and say: "The Ministry of Revenue has no money, do whatever you please!"
So Chen Jing wanted to go to the Great Tang Empire to see, he just wanted to see how the "Ministry of Works" of the Great Tang Empire operates. Whether it’s really as Du Jia said, that the infrastructure department has to gloomily return the unspendable funds to the financial department every year, because they simply can’t find enough slaves and workers to start the projects in their infrastructure plans.
To put it bluntly, these two are housewives who have never seen money, and they just want to see what the life of a wealthy lady is really like, to see if there really is such a thing as buying whatever they want, and their husbands earning so much that they can’t spend it all.
Chen Jing even heard from Du Jia that the Great Tang Empire has millions of scientific and technical personnel working on innovating and developing new technologies. Their daily job is to create things that do not exist in this world, and their combined salaries are even more than the total export profits of the Dahua Empire.
"That bastard Li Mingshun, he actually sealed the north city gate and forbade anyone from entering or leaving!" Wang Yucái recalled the order to close the city gate with teeth-gritting anger.
Nowadays, rebel forces are rampant within the Imperial Capital; gunfire is everywhere. If it wasn’t that their area is very safe, they would be even more tense than they are now.
Fortunately, the face of the Great Tang Empire is really strong, whether it’s gangs or the military, so far, no one has dared to cause trouble in their safe zone.
However, as the situation continues to deteriorate, things have actually become very bad. Outside the walls, many related households have gathered here to seek refuge. Although they can’t enter the courtyard, the congestion at the entrance is disturbing and annoying to see.
"If he really opened the gate, it wouldn’t be just us leaving, the situation would get even more chaotic, he probably… doesn’t want to…" Chu Muzhou is sensible, of course he knows that Li Mingshun’s action is a standard decision of a City Defense Army Commander.
As a member of the City Defense Army, the primary responsibility is to ensure the security of the city: all his orders must ensure the city’s safety and repel foreign enemies.
But before he could finish speaking, a distant sound like muffled thunder came from the direction of the horizon, echoing with a heart-thumping roar.
Chu Muzhou frowned, and the rather younger Wang Yucái walked over to the window and yanked the curtains open. The next second, he saw a plume of black smoke rising between a few lone high buildings in the distance.
"An explosion? Where?" Chen Jing saw the black plume of smoke, also approached the window, looking at the black smoke reaching into the sky, and asked confusedly.
Chu Muzhou also walked over, and just as he reached the window, he saw a second black plume of smoke, rolling up into the sky endlessly.
A few seconds passed, and then another sound like muffled thunder drifted from afar, entering everyone’s ears.
This time, Chen Jing knew… it wasn’t just an explosion.
"Artillery fire! Someone is shelling!" As the Chief of Staff who had toured an armory, he had seen the power of modern artillery.
"Shelling the Imperial Capital? Has Li Mingshun gone mad, or has Zhao Jie gone mad?" Wang Yucái was startled, looking at Chen Jing, seemingly waiting for an answer.
"Perhaps both have gone mad," Chu Muzhou sighed and shook his head. Just earlier he still felt somewhat ashamed for his compromises and choices, but now, all he had left in his heart was nostalgia and sorrow for his past times.
For these sorts of things, one has managed nearly half a lifetime, what exactly is one aiming for? The little bit left by the ancestors, all freaking personally ruined by oneself!
Once the large-caliber shells fall, the remaining so-called tolerance of the civilians in the Imperial Capital will immediately reset to zero, and then the chaos inside the city cannot be easily suppressed!
Just at this moment, the room door was pushed open from outside, and several robust men dressed in black entered in a state of high tension.
They approached the ministers, bowed their heads, and advised, "It’s not safe near the window, my lords, the city has suffered artillery fire, we still don’t know which side did it…"
These men used their bodies as a flesh wall to block the direction of the window, and someone pulled the curtains closed, then turned back to explain, "There might be snipers outside, Lord Du Jia is already contacting the relevant departments, we will leave here by nightfall."
"We can leave today?" Upon hearing what the guard said, the ministers visibly hesitated.
"We must leave, this place is no longer safe," said the speaking captain, nodding, "Please believe us, we will definitely ensure the personal safety of all the lords."
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BLG really boosts morale! LPL rocks! LPL invincible in summer! ELK is ruthless! This MSI is perfect... Hahaha. BIN really nailed it, said 3 to 1 and it was so, well done!
Got carried away watching the game today, so thrilled, hahaha! Just one update for now, will make up tomorrow!
