Chapter 818: Ba City

Bazhou, Ba City.

This mountain city, which could be called neither affluent nor impoverished, had become boisterous due to the arrival of the monarch and ministers of Wu.

After the decision was made to move the capital to Ba City, Liang Kai had arrived here half a month ago along with his ministers, imperial concubines, and imperial princes.

Subsequently, Xie Duan, Han Zheng, and Wang Zi'an, who had been ordered to withdraw from Su City, arrived in Ba City one after another, along with the scions of the powerful clans.

Arriving with them were Luse and his six thousand mercenaries.

In the battles at Niu Tou Tan and Jinling, more than half of his mercenaries had been lost.

The indigenous soldiers seemed to have been wiped out, and over two thousand Western Lands soldiers had also been lost.

"Ambassador Brook, Yan Wang did not fall for the ruse. The Prince's Personal Army that moved south has holed up inside Jinling City and did not pursue our Wu army. Instead, he has shifted his troops toward Jian Pass and Zhongling Pass, clearly intending to seize these two passes."

In the temporary palace of Ba City, Liang Kai frowned deeply.

Yan Wang had always employed unconventional military tactics; despite coordinating with Brook's strategy, he had remained anxious throughout.

Sure enough, he was disappointed after all.

In this way, their plan to lure the enemy deep and annihilate the Prince's Personal Army had failed.

In the pavilion of the temporary palace, Xie Duan, Han Zheng, and Wang Zi'an sat on the side, while Brook and Luse sat opposite Liang Kai.

The two exchanged a glance, and Brook smiled, "You should be thanking me. Although Yan Wang did not fall for the ruse, at least his attention has been drawn away by Southern Liang and the Northern Territory people, hasn't it?"

Upon hearing this, Liang Kai suddenly realized the truth. He raised his wine cup and thanked them repeatedly, "Ambassador Brook, General Luse, it was I who was dull-witted. Many thanks, many thanks."

Clearly, in the current alliance, the Nanping Kingdom's Personal Army was close to Frank, Southern Liang was close to the Northern Territory, and the Northern Territory was close to Ross.

The relationship between Britain and his Wu was the truly steadfast one.

This strategy of Brook's was undoubtedly secretly favoring his Wu.

"But Dou Wei is an old fox; he must be able to realize this, so why did he..." Xie Duan suddenly felt something was wrong and asked.

"Southern Liang has no choice. If Wu perishes, it will be Southern Liang's turn next. This is also Southern Liang's sincerity; they once betrayed you, so it is only right that they compensate you," Brook said. "Of course, the most important point is that the Northern Territory can obtain firearms and artillery from Britain. They must cooperate with our actions; if the Northern Territory cooperates, Southern Liang naturally must cooperate as well."

Liang Kai and the others suddenly understood.

Han Zheng clapped his hands and laughed, "Correct. Southern Liang owes us. Otherwise, we would have agreed to the war to conquer Yan, and it wouldn't have ended as miserably as it did today. It is time to make them bleed."

Hearing this, Wang Zi'an and Xie Duan sighed at the same time.

Now, apart from the remnants of their own troops, they truly had nothing left.

"Brother Han, Brother Xie, Brother Wang, these matters are in the past. Now that our families have returned to good terms, for the sake of dealing with Yan Wang, we understand this in our hearts, but we must not mention it again in public," Liang Kai said, immediately trying to mediate as he saw the anger on the three men's faces.

Brook said, "His Majesty is right. Having Southern Liang and the Northern Territory take action this time, while on one hand looking after your Wu, is indeed also a strategic necessity. From now on, your powerful clans must cooperate with all your might."

The three men, Han Zheng, nodded slowly.

It was said that as soon as Liang Kai arrived in Ba City,

Southern Liang transported a large quantity of grain and fodder, and this first batch did not even require payment in silver.

It was evident that the Dou Family truly had some intention of making amends.

Otherwise, given Dou Wei's temperament, he would never do something that caused him a loss, nor would he take the initiative to attack at Jian Pass and Zhongling Pass.

After all, this meant he would face the main offensive of Yan Wang.

"Ambassador Brook and His Majesty are right," Han Zheng said with a firm gaze. "Let the past be the past. Yan Wang is our true enemy."

Having said that, he downed his wine in one gulp.

Strategically speaking, Brook's approach was not wrong in the slightest.

Yan Wang's southward momentum was as surging as the waters of the Jiujiang, impossible to block.

If he were allowed to continue moving south, within half a year, the entire Jiangnan would fall.

Now, by placing the Southern Liang army and the Northern Territory's Ashuer Tribe at Jian Pass and Zhongling Pass,

although Yan Wang did not follow their ruse, they had achieved half of their goal.

Yan Wang was now forced to stop his southward advance, and the battlefield had been pulled back from the south to the north.

Thus, they had gained time to catch their breath.

"That's more like it," Brook revealed a satisfied smile.

He actually hoped for conflict between the powerful clans.

In this way, after Yan Wang was destroyed, he could exploit the conflicts between the clans to profit for Britain.

However, in the current situation, these conflicts had to be concealed, and they had to focus on dealing with Yan Wang.

"By the way, Ambassador Brook, when will these imitation firearms arrive? I fear Southern Liang and the Northern Territory will not be able to hold out. If Yan Wang seizes Jian Pass and Zhongling Pass, he will regain the initiative and will certainly continue to move south. In my opinion, only by letting our armies possess firearms and artillery equal to Yan Wang's can we deal with them," Liang Kai said after discussing Yan Wang's change in deployment.

Brook frowned, "Our factory in Tianzhu is not large in scale and cannot expand production in a short time. However, the Governor has already reported the matter of imitating firearms to the Parliament. With the steam industry of Britain's mainland, three or four hundred thousand firearms will definitely be no problem within two or three months. But with the back-and-forth, I fear it will take a year to meet your needs."

Liang Kai was somewhat disappointed; a year was too long.

Who knew what changes might occur during this period.

But for now, he could only pin his hopes on the Workshop in Tianzhu belonging to Britain. He said, "Then please prioritize our Wu. Even if the silver cost is higher, it does not matter."

"Your Majesty, you have forgotten again. Now you must be united as one. The firearms that can be spared must naturally be used in the most critical places," Brook did not agree to Liang Kai.

Although they were more inclined to support Wu, they could not be too biased when it came to the issue of Yan Wang.

Furthermore, the firearms produced must naturally first satisfy their British Army.

Only the surplus could be sold to them.

According to his estimate, within two months from now, they would provide a total of thirty thousand imitation firearms to the powerful clans and the Northern Territory at most.

"Yes, yes, yes," Liang Kai smiled awkwardly and stopped mentioning the matter.

Immediately, the group discussed how to make corresponding deployments again after Yan Wang changed his own.

This confrontation with Yan Wang was like the changes in military formations on a battlefield.

If the opponent changed their formation, they naturally had to change their corresponding formation as well.

"Currently, Mule Hongzhen is stretching the northern defense line, and Southern Liang and the Ashuer Tribe are stretching the western defense line. We must cooperate with them to spread Yan Wang's forces even thinner. In this way, we can concentrate our forces at one point and gain the advantage," Luse said.

After a pause, he continued: "Since Yan Wang will not come to pursue us, we shall create trouble for him. We should order the Wu army to advance toward the south bank of Jiujiang and create many feints of crossing the river, forcing him to deploy troops to defend the north bank of Jiujiang."

Everyone nodded upon hearing this.

The fewer troops Yan Wang uses at Jian Pass and Zhongling Pass, the smaller the possibility of capturing Jian Pass and Zhongling Pass will be.

Once the muskets from Britain arrive, the advantage will be theirs.

For the first time, they felt that victory was within reach.

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