Chapter 1047: 1048 Go south to Xiqing

Chapter 1047 1048 Heading south to Xiqing

 The most typical ones are the Wangdu, Imperial Capital, Dongqing, and Xiajuan lines. The valuable industries of the Great China Empire are all distributed on this line.

"Zhao Ji and Zhao Jie cover each other and serve as each other's horns, which stabilizes the defense to a certain extent... It will take us a lot of effort to capture them both." Luo Xiao expressed his worries.

He was afraid of getting too hasty, so he really united Zhao Ji and Zhao Jie: If the two people really unite regardless of their past grudges, it seems that they will be a hard nut to crack.

Luo Xiao's staff officer gave his own suggestion: "It doesn't matter, let the troops move south first, and wait until they reach the front of Pingfeng and Xiqing. We can't let them have time to build fortifications, right?"

 As the saying goes, soldiers are valuable and they are quick. As long as Zhao Jie and Zhao Ji are not given the opportunity to build fortifications, these two people may not be able to hold the line of defense.

"That's definitely not the case. I have already ordered the troops to advance south. Do you want the troops in the direction of Guiguang to follow suit?" Another officer nodded, looked at Luo Xiao and asked.

After asking, he did not forget to ridicule the poor quality of Fengjiang's troops, and his tone was full of emotion: "Unfortunately, these Dahua troops are really not very easy to use. Their mobility is too poor and their field maneuvers are slow."

This is indeed the case: if the attack speed of the Tang Empire was followed, they would probably have caught up with Zhao Ji and Zhao Jie who were fleeing and annihilated them halfway through their escape.

If the follow-up troops hadn't arrived too slowly, Zhao Ji and Li Mingshun wouldn't have had time to run away! They would be surrounded right in the imperial capital, and even now they are captured.

"No need. The troops at Guiguang will belong to our Tang Empire from now on. They should not be wasted on the battlefield without undergoing rigorous training." Luo Xiao's staff officer shook his head and rejected this suggestion.

"You are right." Luo Xiao on the side also supported this judgment: "Those people are all common people of our Tang Empire, and they cannot act randomly. Just let the Fengjiang Army from the imperial capital go south. There is no need to add extraneous details.”

He thought of another thing and looked at the liaison officer of the intelligence department: "How is Shen Chuan's investigation going?"

The liaison officer immediately replied: "Shen Chuan's death has been confirmed. His family said that Shen Chuan was missing on the day Zhao Kai died. They don't know where Shen Chuan went. The one who was found in the well All the characteristics of the body belong to Shen Chuan himself.”

Luo Xiao nodded slightly again, and it seemed that this matter could come to an end: "Then let's give him a grand burial... He was the first to die in the entire empire... It's really pitiful to think about it, such a huge empire, even There are not many serious people willing to die for it.”

“General, you can’t actually say that. After all, the Great China Empire has not yet died.” The staff officer smiled and told a hellish joke, and many people laughed.

After laughing enough, someone answered and said: "It is indeed not destroyed. Zhao Yu plans to arrive here in one day, just like before, take the train and then transfer to the car."

After hearing about Zhao Yu's itinerary, the staff officer joked disdainfully: "Ha! It seems that he can't wait any longer."

 For Zhao Yu, it is self-evident what the imperial capital means. He wanted to come back here so much, because coming back here meant that he was in control of everything.

Didu is the capital of the Great China Empire and represents legal rule: whoever holds the imperial capital is qualified to issue commanders. Zhao Yu, who was forced to flee here a year ago, is even more obsessed with this place.

 The weather is already very cold, but it has not yet snowed here in the Imperial Capital. The Imperial Capital has lost more than half of its electricity and many buildings. No one cares about how the people inside will survive this winter. No one cares about how many people died in previous battles.

"Absolutely. Anyone who has paid so much will strive to get back what is rightfully his." An officer looked at the problem from Zhao Yu's perspective and felt that everything was reasonable.

 Sure enough, his words won the approval of many people: "The price? It is indeed not small."

Those present were all senior officers of the Tang Empire. Of course, they had heard about the remuneration paid by Zhao Yu to the Datang Empire.

That was the once fertile land of the Great China Empire, including an important grain-producing area, two transportation hubs and a population of tens of millions...

 Under normal circumstances, no emperor would cede so much land and population as long as he was not stupid. But Zhao Yu agreed, and he didn't even have much psychological burden.

"Haha! I hope he can appease the people who know the truth." The officer on the side imagined the verbal and verbal criticism Zhao Yu would face in the future, and grinned again.

Those who know that Zhao Yu lost power and humiliated the country will scold Zhao Yu to death. They will record what Zhao Yu did after he ascended the throne, and then pass on these stories so that Zhao Yu will be remembered in history.

Of course, this kind of remembrance is not a good thing: Zhao Yu will be nailed to the pillar of shame and will not be able to turn around for the rest of his life.

"I think he will do a good job." The staff officer gloated and said. Luo Xiao was very casual: "Again, no matter whether he does well or not, it is no longer something we need to care about."

 …

In Pingfeng, Zhao Jie, who had retreated here with the rebellious nobles in the imperial capital, waited for 50,000 new soldiers to support him from the direction of Jutian.

 He ​​now has about 200,000 troops in his hands: although more than half of them are new recruits with worrying combat effectiveness, they are better than nothing!

He mobilized almost all the coolies he could find in Pingfeng to build a defense line, trying to establish a complete defense line before the enemies in the north went south to Pingfeng.

On the other hand, the situation in Xiqing is a little different: Zhao Ji arrived in Xiqing first. After arriving in Xiqing, he did not rush to build a defense line. Instead, he appointed ministers here and announced that Cai Licheng would be designated as the "accompanying capital". ".

 To put it bluntly, he is still dreaming about being an emperor and has not adapted to his current situation at all. After Li Mingshun retreated to Xiqing with the remaining troops, he discovered that almost no preparations had been done here!

Although the grain that was originally going to be transported to the imperial capital stayed in Xiqing, the arms and ammunition were very few: the industrial zone had been completely destroyed, and there was really no factory in the direction of Xiqing that could manufacture munitions.

Therefore, Li Mingshun and Zhao Ji's troops can probably only use the accumulated weapons and ammunition to fight. In theory, it is equivalent to using one bullet and losing one bullet.

 Compared with them, Zhao Jie's situation is much better: Shanchong itself is a mining area, and there are factories that can produce weapons and ammunition. And because Shanchong is an important frontline town, the ammunition hoarded in Shanchong is obviously more than that hoarded in Xiqing.

In addition to the issue of ammunition, Li Mingshun discovered that Zhao Ji did not organize and build any fortifications in Xiqing: he was busy drinking and drinking, dividing the ministers, and he was so busy that he couldn't do anything.

 After Li Mingshun arrived in Xiqing with the troops who retreated from the direction of the imperial capital, the defense work here was officially launched.

 The good news is that they have received some reinforcements: the 50,000 defeated troops who came from the direction of Wangdu received food and wages in Xiqing, which can be regarded as stabilizing their position.

 Including the troops originally deployed to reinforce the imperial capital, the garrison of Xiqing was about 250,000, which was already a pretty good number.

Although the combat effectiveness of these troops was indeed average, Li Mingshun still believed that it would not be a problem for him to defend Xiqing: in his opinion, the fall of the imperial capital was only due to Zhao Jie's rebellion and had little to do with his deployment.

Unconsciously, four days passed, and a modest wedding was held in Chang'an, the capital of the Tang Empire. In order to take care of the emotions of the three princesses who did not have a decent wedding, Tang Mo put himself and Ying Yue's The wedding was also compressed to a rather small scale.

 Although some ministers were invited to a banquet, the whole process was not recorded on television. Even in order to take care of the emotions of several princesses, the wedding of Elf Princess Irene was hastily held together.

The difference is that Tang Mo, the emperor of the Tang Dynasty, stayed in Ying Yue's room that night, and the elf princess Yilin, who was too young, just attended a wedding and had no inappropriate relationship with Tang Mo.

 It was also during these four days that Zhao Yu, the former prince of the Dahua Empire, returned to the imperial capital of the Dahua Empire, where he announced that he would inherit the throne, proclaim himself emperor, and become the new emperor of the Dahua Empire.

 After ascending the throne, he issued a series of edicts, announcing that the Great China Empire would resume trade with the Tang Empire and resume trade with Qin.

These measures obviously gave the people hope. Everyone felt that the new emperor was much better than the previous emperor who only caused chaos, so they accepted such a new emperor who had previously been called a "rebel."

Luo Xiao moved his headquarters to a place less than 100 kilometers away from Xiqing, and directed the troops going south to focus on attacking Zhao Ji and Li Mingshun's troops.

 Fengjiang's troops, which had an advantage in strength and an absolute advantage in firepower, quickly broke through Xiqing's outer defense line.

 At the same time, the Fengjiang Air Force taking off from the Imperial Capital North Airport bombed Xiqing. Li Mingshun finally witnessed with his own eyes the terrifying power of air force bombing.

You must know that the pilots of Fengjiang Air Force are composed of two parts. One part is the pilots who have played in the fierce battle to defend Fengjiang for more than a year, and the other part is their opponent, the pilots of the Dahua Empire.

Now these pilots no longer need to fight each other: they all fight for Zhao Yu! And their opponents actually no longer have decent air power.

Li Mingshun and Zhao Ji don’t have many airplanes in total. They also lack the ability to manufacture airplanes and cannot supplement pilots.

 Under this premise, air control is firmly in Luo Xiao's hands. It was against this background that the attack and defense of Xiqing City began.

 (End of this chapter)