Chapter 1107: War Begins!

A gust of wind blew in from outside the side hall, causing the map on the wall to rustle and bringing a bit of coolness to the sweltering hall.

Having made the resolution to launch the war for Tianzhu, Zhao Xu went straight to the Imperial Palace's telegraph station to convey the combat orders to Zhou Yi, Qin Shan, and Guan Tong.

The Great Song's telegraph stations did not stop after reaching Yunzhou and Jiaozhou, but continued to extend southward.

The line in Jiaozhou went straight into Jiaozhi, managed by the Great Song garrison stationed in the Jiaozhi Capital City.

This line would also be laid to the Nanzhang Kingdom, which is the area of contemporary Cambodia.

The line in Yunzhou entered Nanzhang, and then entered Piaoman.

Like in Jiaozhi, these telegraph stations were temporarily controlled by the Great Song garrisons of each country and were not open to the public, serving only for military use.

Therefore, the current Great Song telegraph stations had basically extended to the front lines of the war.

In the future, these telegraph stations would continue to extend, laying submarine cables to reach Southern Region countries like Luzon and Java.

As for Ryukyu, the submarine cable from Haicheng to there had already been completed, integrated into the Great Song's telegraph network.

This was the southern line; of course, the northern line was also under construction. Gaoli already had military telegraph stations, and the submarine cable from Gaoli to Dongying would also be completed by the end of the year.

By then, information transmission between the Great Song and its vassal states would be even smoother.

It would also facilitate communication between the Great Song and its vassal states.

However, as the telegraph became popularized, it was no longer a secret.

To prevent the occurrence of fake imperial orders, Zhao Xu specifically formulated a set of encrypted codes for himself.

Every time he issued an order directly, he would use different secret codes.

Besides him, the Defense Department and the Cabinet also had their own encrypted codes.

Otherwise, once someone faked an order, it would easily cause a very serious incident.

After Zhao Xu's order was issued, the secret telegram first arrived at the telegraph station in Qizhou from Yancheng, and then it was transmitted from one station to another, taking about an hour.

The secret telegram arrived at the telegraph station in the city of Yangon in Piaoman, where military telegraph operators translated the secret telegram into a written order.

Before long, two teams of Cavalry set out from Yangon, heading toward the front line at the border between Piaoman and Tianzhu.

One route headed toward the Malacca Strait.

Zhou Yi and the naval commanders were currently stationed in Singapore on the north shore of Malacca.

Stationed here were also the twelve most advanced ironclad ships of the Great Song.

Two days later, the Cavalry delivered the order into Qin Shan's hands.

"The Emperor has ordered to officially start the war against Tianzhu!" After taking the telegram, Qin Shan just glanced at it and read it out loud.

"Really? Is it true?" Guan Tong hurriedly leaned over to take a look.

Finding it was true, he was almost ready to jump for joy.

But mindful of his image as a Zhenwu General, he forcibly held it back.

However, the smile on his face could not be hidden.

"After waiting for so long, we can finally beat these bastards from the Western Lands." Even as steady as Qin Shan was, he could not help but feel excited.

During this period, although they had not started an all-out war.

The two sides had constant small frictions on the battlefield.

And taking advantage of the night, the Western Lands Allied Forces often sent soldiers to try to cross the battlefield and sneak to their rear to destroy ammunition depots and the Granary.

Naturally, they also took retaliatory actions against the small moves of the Western Lands Allied Forces.

With give and take, both sides had casualties.

Although these casualties were small, they caused the soldiers on both sides to accumulate a lot of resentment, and they were all clamoring to fight.

"By the way, do we need to wait for the Navy to act together?" At this time, Guan Tong thought of something and asked.

Yangon was close to them, while it was very far from Malacca, six times the distance.

Emperor Zhao Xu's order would take at least another ten days to reach there.

"No need, the actions at sea and the actions on land are independent. It doesn't matter if they destroy the Western Lands Allied Forces' navy a little earlier or a little later," Qin Shan said.

Originally, it was necessary for the Navy to destroy the Western Fleet before they defeated the Western Lands Allied Forces.

This could prevent the Western Lands Allied Forces from escaping by sea.

But now, the Westerners and the Tusman Empire were colluding.

Which meant they had a retreat route on land.

Therefore, they only needed to be responsible for their respective tasks and eliminate their targets.

"That's even better, saves us the trouble." Guan Tong chuckled twice.

Qin Shan nodded, "Let's all prepare. Tomorrow morning at the Mao hour, we will shell the enemy's Trench fortifications on time."

He paused and looked behind him.

Five miles away from him, there was a huge open space.

Eighteen airships were parked on the open space.

When he learned through the telegraph that the airships were heading to the front line, he ordered the soldiers to build this temporary airship mooring site.

Guan Tong noticed Qin Shan's gaze and also looked behind, a mischievous smile curling at the corner of his mouth, "This time, let the Westerners taste our new Weapon."

"That goes without saying. Tomorrow, the artillery shelling and airship bombing will be carried out simultaneously to completely destroy their fortifications. By then, there will also be airships hovering in the air to provide us with battlefield intelligence." Qin Shan clenched his fist, full of incomparable confidence in the victory of the war.

The two discussed the details of the pre-war preparations for a while longer and returned to their respective armies.

The next day, at the crack of dawn.

The Artillerymen entered their positions.

Unlike the best-equipped Central Army.

The Azure Dragon Army and the Vermilion Bird Army were still slightly poorer.

Each army was only equipped with 380 Howitzers and 80 Rifled Cannons, for a total of 460 pieces of Artillery.

Right now, nine hundred and twenty pieces of Artillery from both armies are all deployed on the battlefield.

These Artillery pieces have formed a five-kilometer-long artillery position on the battlefield, equal in width to the Trenches of the Western Lands Allied Forces.

As the fish-belly white in the sky grew brighter, the time reached the hour of Mao.

At this moment, following an order from the artillery commander, nine hundred and twenty pieces of Artillery roared almost simultaneously.

Muzzle flashes flickered, gunpowder smoke rose, and one Cannonball after another flew toward the Trench positions of the Western Lands Allied Forces.

"Boom, boom, boom..." In an instant, the Cannonballs landing on the Trench positions exploded into blossoms of Flame.

These blossoms of Flame spread across the battlefield, brilliant and beautiful, yet carrying the scent of death, shaking the earth.

At this moment.

The Western Lands Allied Forces were only guarding as usual, and none had entered a state of war.

These past few days, they had also not discovered any signs of an offensive from Great Song.

Therefore, the sudden artillery bombardment truly blasted them into a daze.

Fortunately, however, they no longer looked down upon the Great Song army.

At the very first moment of the bombardment, the Coalition soldiers hid inside the deep and narrow Trenches.

These Trenches were constructed specifically to defend against the Artillery of Great Song.

The depth of the Trenches is around two meters, but the width can only accommodate one person.

This can reduce the chance of the Great Song army's Cannonballs falling directly into the Trenches.

The deep Trenches can also block the lethality of shrapnel.

And at the same time, their Artillerymen also entered their fortifications and launched a bombardment toward the Trench positions of Great Song.