Chapter 701: Spoils of War

Lu City.

While Zhao Xu was inspecting the Armaments Department, Chang Wei launched an attack on this place.

Yesterday, he led his troops to arrive beneath the walls of Lu City, taking advantage of the night to dig trenches on the outskirts of Lu City.

It was different from places like Ji City and Yang City.

Lu City was built on a plain; there were no solid rocks here to hinder them from digging trenches.

At this moment, following his order, the Grenadier Squad entered the trenches and threw Hand Grenades toward the walls of Lu City.

After entering Qizhou, his invincible new style of warfare once again exerted tremendous power.

It only took half a day for him to take Lu City.

"General, part of the troops inside Lu City are private soldiers of the Rich Clans, but most are able-bodied men the Han Family dragged into the army," Qin Shan reported to Chang Wei with a dark face.

"How unlucky, it's actually a bunch of ragtag soldiers," Lv Chang said.

Upon hearing this, Chang Wei snorted and said, "I would like to see how long these Shizu Armies can hide."

As the three were speaking, a general walked over with a face full of joy, "General, this subordinate has discovered the national treasury of Lu City; there is a large amount of copper coins, gold, silver, and jewelry inside that they didn't have time to move away."

After a pause, he added, "However, the calligraphy, paintings, and porcelain were either burned or smashed by them; they didn't want to leave them for us."

"Hahaha... Ji City must have fallen too quickly, catching them off guard," Qin Shan laughed. His mood improved; this battle had not been fought in vain after all.

Having said that, the three went together to the national treasury located in the southwest corner of Lu City.

Sure enough, in one of the storehouses, they saw mountains of copper coins piled up.

In several other storehouses, they discovered boxes of silver, gold bars, and jewelry.

"This Han Family is truly rich," Lv Chang clicked his tongue.

He roughly estimated that the things left behind by the Han Family were worth at least ten million taels.

"Half of the Great Song's salt comes from Qizhou. It is not strange that they could save up such a large family fortune over these two hundred-plus years," Chang Wei narrowed his eyes. "Transport these things back to Yanzhou. Fighting the Northern Di in the past was always a losing business, but this attack on Qizhou has been profitable."

Next, the three went to inspect the Granary.

To their annoyance, seventy percent of the grain in the Granary had been burned to ashes, and the remaining thirty percent was for the one hundred thousand garrison troops of Lu City, which was only enough for one month's rations.

"Damn it," Chang Wei cursed. "They are trying to implement a scorched-earth policy to create trouble for us as we head south."

After pondering for a while, he said, "Lv Chang, you lead thirty thousand troops to Yang City and, with the thirty thousand troops already stationed there, attack from both front and rear to take Yang City."

Then, he said, "Qin Shan, Guan Tong, you follow this General to continue south toward Yi City. The more they want to block us, the more I will insist on chasing them down."

"Yes, General," Qin Shan and Guan Tong said loudly.

The next day, Commander Chang Wei headed toward Yi City.

Lv Chang went straight toward Yang City.

Through captives seized in Lu City, they learned that most of the troops in Yang City had already withdrawn.

There were only thirty thousand troops inside the city.

However, Yang City was truly easy to defend and difficult to attack.

They committed a large force to the siege in order to reduce soldier casualties, take Yang City as quickly as possible, and rendezvous with Chang Wei's group.

Two days later, Lv Chang arrived at Yang City.

That night, he took advantage of the darkness to launch an attack on Yang City.

Because they rested during the day and marched at night, he evaded the reconnaissance of Yang City's Scouts.

The troops in Yang City had no defenses against them coming from the direction of Lu City.

In the darkness, the skirmishers crept to the foot of the city wall and threw Hand Grenades onto the ramparts.

At the same time, the Prince's Personal Army on the north side of Yang City also launched an attack on Yang City.

With sixty thousand troops attacking from front and rear, before dawn, Yang City, which was guarded by only thirty thousand men, was successfully taken by them.

The next day, they headed toward Yi City to rendezvous with Chang Wei's group.

Jinghai County.

Zhao Xu inspected the Workshop, then left Yancheng and arrived here.

Wang Chong's Large Single-Cylinder Steam Engine had made some progress; naturally, what he cared about now was the construction of the main body of the steamship.

After all, the steam engine and the main body of the steamship were inseparable; neither could do without the other.

"Your Highness, I have left the dimensions for this position exactly as required by the blueprints, not a bit more or less," in a Dry Dock, Chen Shou said while pointing at the steamship under construction.

Currently, this steamship only had its keel, and it would still take some time before completion.

"No need to worry about this; the dimensions of the steam engine I gave to Wang Chong were based on the blueprints," Zhao Xu said.

After a pause, he said, "Can the progress of the steamship be advanced?"

Originally, with only Dongying participating in the Great Song's internal chaos, his Sailing Warships were completely sufficient.

But now that Sam Country and Britain were also involved in the chaos of the Great Song, his need for steamships became urgent.

After all, Sailing Warships relied too much on wind; without wind, there was insufficient power.

But steamships were different; they could maintain power in all weather conditions.

If a battle occurred, the side with steamships would be more flexible, achieving victory with fewer numbers.

He did not want his Sailing Warships to suffer a disadvantage against the Westerners in this regard.

"It can be advanced by about two months," Chen Shou thought for a moment and said.

The size of the steamship was only half that of a Sailing Warship.

However, because a steam engine needed to be installed, the internal structure was a bit more complex.

At the beginning, he had asked for one year.

But as the construction progressed, he estimated that ten months would be enough.

After all, the most important part of this thing is the Steam Engine.