Chapter 1106: Everything is Ready

Tongguan.

While the Tusman Empire, Britain, and Ross were making peace in Akala, train after train of steam locomotives carrying ammunition and baggage trains arrived here.

These baggage trains would be handed over to the camel caravan led by Kelin, who was responsible for transporting the supplies to Wumu City.

"So, this is a steam locomotive!" At this moment, Kelin was bringing three Great Kings from the Yuan King's camp who had submitted to Great Song to verify the quantity of the baggage.

Gazing at the steam locomotives, which were emitting white smoke and resembled steel behemoths, they all stood there in shock for a long while.

On the way back, the Central Army generals had told them that Great Song's baggage would be transported via steam locomotives, but they had not believed such a thing existed.

Now that they saw it with their own eyes, he truly had no more doubts.

At the same time, he and the other three all secretly wiped away cold sweat.

They were glad they had made a wise decision.

Because before they entered Tongguan, they discovered that the railway at Tongguan had already extended toward the Grassland.

Once these steel behemoths galloped across the Grassland, Great Song would be able to project troops and supplies within a very short time.

By then, they, the Northern Di, would still lose in the end, and they would lose even more miserably.

Thinking of this, they were filled with even more fear toward Great Song, and they could not even raise a shred of disrespect in their hearts.

After handing over the first batch of ammunition and supplies, Kelin immediately had a portion of the camel caravan set off.

Within a month, the ammunition arrived one after another and was sent to Wumu City.

At the same time.

Information regarding various aspects of Tianzhu and Zhongtu also flew into Zhao Xu's Imperial Study like snowflakes.

Synthesizing intelligence from all sides, Zhao Xu believed the time to launch an attack on Tianzhu had arrived.

"Next, focus the direction of intelligence gathering on Zhongtu," Zhao Xu said to Xu Ke.

This intelligence was provided by the Supervision Four Courts.

After the main contradiction faced by Great Song shifted from domestic to foreign, the functions of the Supervision Four Courts also gradually shifted from an organization similar to the Embroidered Uniform Guard to one similar to MI6 and the KGB.

Their battlefield would no longer be limited to within Great Song, but would also be distributed across every battlefield outside of Great Song.

"Yes, Your Majesty," Xu Ke acknowledged.

Then, thinking of something, he said, "Your Majesty, I believe the Silver Fox Plan should be initiated. While collecting intelligence on Tianzhu and Zhongtu is difficult, it is still manageable, but grasping intelligence on the homelands of the Xitu Guo is difficult, especially obtaining deeper intelligence."

"The Silver Fox Plan?" Zhao Xu thought for a moment, then reacted.

Two years ago, he had asked Xu Ke to go to Australia, which is now the Nanzhan Continent, to find some abandoned orphans and train them to become eyes and ears.

In the future, these eyes and ears would be sent to the Xitu Guo to act as Great Song's eyes and ears.

This plan was the Silver Fox Plan.

After all, if you know yourself and know your enemy, you will never be defeated in a hundred battles.

The confrontation between Great Song and the Westerners will likely continue for a long time.

He needs to accurately grasp the changes coming from the West.

And because there is a large difference in appearance between the people of Great Song and the Westerners, and they are far apart.

It is very difficult for them to understand each other, which makes it even more necessary to implement the Silver Fox Plan.

"I will give you an imperial decree to have Zhou Yi cooperate with you," Zhao Xu said.

The final step of the Silver Fox Plan is to deploy these eyes and ears to the homelands of the Westerners.

This will be implemented through the navy's warships.

Now that Great Song has ironclad warships, it is appropriate to spare one to transport these eyes and ears.

In this way, even if the ironclad warship encounters the enemy's patrolling warships, it can sink them and complete the mission.

Even if it encounters a large-scale fleet and cannot win, it can still escape with the power of the ironclad warship.

"Thank you, Your Majesty." A glimmer of excitement flashed in Xu Ke's eyes.

He had been looking forward to this day for a long time; for him, this was more challenging.

In order not to let these eyes and ears be wiped out in one go.

These people would be deployed to different locations.

Moreover, they were all trained individually; no one would know of the others' existence, and they would all communicate via single-line contact using special marks.

That is to say, even if one group was wiped out, the other groups would not be affected.

The reason he was so careful was also to prevent these eyes and ears from rebelling.

After all, they themselves were Westerners; if they lived in the West for a period of time and forgot the hatred of being exiled, rebelling would be an easy thing to do.

After discussing this matter, Xu Ke returned.

Zhao Xu walked out of the study and came to the side hall next to the study.

Hanging in this side hall were many maps sent by the Defense Department.

Those of Gaoli, Dongying, the Southeast Five Nations, Nanzhan Continent, Luzon, and Java.

Of course, among them were also those of Tianzhu and Zhongtu.

There were also maps of the Xitu Guo currently being drawn.

These maps were naturally provided by him as references.

Arriving in front of the map of Tianzhu, Zhao Xu looked at the border between Piaoman and Tianzhu.

Now, this place was undoubtedly a gunpowder barrel that would explode at the slightest touch.

According to the intelligence provided by Xu Ke, the Tusman Empire was preparing to engage in a full-scale war with Great Song at this location, Tianshan.

They even withdrew the troops located on the west side of Tianzhu.

In fact, the ultimate goal of his letting Chang Wei lead the western expedition was not to make the Tusman Empire withdraw the troops from Tianzhu.

Because he did not even take those 200,000 troops seriously.

What he worried about was the Tusman Empire continuously sending troops to Tianzhu to serve as cannon fodder for the Westerners, which would be somewhat troublesome.

The expansion of the scale of war would only shatter Tianzhu, and this was not what he wished to see.

He also wanted to make Tianzhu an export market for Da Song's industrial products.

Therefore, the primary purpose of the western expedition was to pin down the entire Tusman Empire, leaving it no time to attend to the war in Tianzhu.

As it stands, he has achieved this.

Moreover, the Westerners are likely still smug and self-satisfied, unaware of his true purpose, and even believe they have gained an advantage by inciting a confrontation between two great powers.

"The war can begin!" Zhao Xu said softly.

In this battle, he intended to deal a heavy blow to the Western Lands Allied Forces, strike terror into them, and make them dare not set foot in the Dongtu region.

Furthermore, using Tianzhu as a fulcrum, he prepared to raise the curtain on the dismemberment of the Tusman Empire.

During this period, he had already instructed Qu Sheng to lay out the petrochemical industry within Da Song.

Following the development of the contemporary Electric Power Industry, the rise of the petrochemical industry would naturally follow.

Afterward, the petrochemical industry would become an indispensable component of heavy industry for a great power.

Because Petroleum is not only used to produce fuels like diesel and gasoline.

The importance of many by-products is in no way inferior to those two.

For example, it can also refine the lubricating oil needed for machine tools.

The by-product gas produced during the refining process can also be used to extract helium.

This is a safer gas for filling airships than hydrogen.

Another very important point is that these by-product gases can be used to synthesize ammonia, urea, and the like.

It can be said that the fertilizer industry is closely linked to the petrochemical industry.

Only by establishing the petrochemical industry can Da Song's fertilizer industry rise, and only then can Da Song's grain production be further increased.

This would allow grain to go from being enough to eat to being in surplus.

Only surplus grain can be used to feed livestock, allowing meat, eggs, and milk to become common in every household.

Precisely because of this, only a portion of the Petroleum imported by contemporary countries is used as fuel; much of it is used to manufacture other daily industrial products.

Therefore, for the sake of Da Song's petrochemical industry, his layout in Zhongtu is a matter of extreme urgency.

Of course, Da Song also has some Petroleum reserves.

But to him, given the current level of technology, extraction is too time-consuming and laborious, and the quality of the Petroleum is poor, so it is better to leave it for future generations to inherit.

Isn't it better to transport oil back from Zhongtu, a place where oil bubbles up every two steps?

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