Chapter 862: Good News

"A million-strong army, turned to dust and smoke; when the powerful clans of Ba City and the Westerners find out, their expressions will surely be spectacular. It is a pity this general cannot see it with his own eyes." Chang Wei cast his gaze toward Ba City and remarked with a taunt.

"Hahaha..." Zhao Xu laughed. "No matter what their expressions are now, in the end, this Prince will certainly make them weep."

For the sake of selfish interests, they did not hesitate to invite foreign enemies, leading to the suffering of the people; these are traitors to the country.

Only by killing them can the hatred in his heart be resolved.

After inspecting Changcheng, Zhao Xu and Chang Wei returned to the Government Office.

The soldiers tidied up and cleaned, and this place became the wartime command center.

Taking Jiangzhou and Xiangzhou, while simultaneously destroying the powerful clans' million-strong army, was indeed a phased victory.

However, it was still some distance away from a total victory.

Therefore, the two immediately discussed the next steps.

"Moving south from Shacheng to Guizhou, then detouring through Yunzhou to attack Bazhou—this route is too treacherous and takes a huge detour. Furthermore, one must defeat the Nanping Army in Yunzhou before being able to approach Bazhou; doing so would waste too much time," Zhao Xu said.

Unlike the modern era, the natural environment of ancient times was very good.

This resulted in dense forests and great marshes everywhere, with wild beasts and poisonous insects running rampant in the mountains.

Some places even had miasma.

And it just so happened that Guizhou and Yunzhou were the places with the most of these.

Most importantly, after this loop, the Prince's Personal Army would have to walk over three thousand li.

During this time, I fear that non-combat attrition caused by the natural environment would be even greater than the deaths from fighting.

Therefore, this path must absolutely not be taken.

Thus, only two paths remained.

One is to travel upstream along the Yangtze River; this path is the most direct, but also the most dangerous.

Because the contemporary famous Three Gorges are located in the section between Xiangzhou and Bazhou.

It can truly be said: the mountains are steep, and the cries of the apes on both banks never cease.

As long as a few cannons are set up at the dangerous points, the ships below would only be in a position to be hit.

This path can be attempted, but it should not be forced.

Then the only remaining path for them is to enter Yizhou from Jiameng Pass, and then attack Ba City from Yizhou.

Yizhou is as flat as a plain, separated from Ba City only by several mountain ranges to the west.

One only needs to break through the mountain passes to reach Ba City directly.

Furthermore, Yizhou is also the fulcrum to pry open Yunzhou.

It is more convenient to enter Yunzhou from Yizhou.

Of course, there is also a very important point: taking the last grain-producing region of Dasong to cut off the grain supply for Bazhou.

Afterward, even if the attack on Ba City suffers a setback, he only needs to take Yunzhou and surround Ba City completely, waiting for its grain to be exhausted.

However, he believes it will not come to that step.

The victories at Jiangxia and Changcheng not only allowed him, but also the Prince's Personal Army—from generals to soldiers—to have a clearer understanding of the current strength of the Prince's Personal Army.

It made them increasingly confident.

Piercing through Yizhou and taking Bazhou and Yunzhou might not be that difficult for them.

"Therefore,

for the current plan, one only needs to leave ten thousand men to garrison Shacheng and Changcheng; the rest will cross the river to the north, detour to Jiameng Pass, and take Yizhou together with the Qin Army," Zhao Xu said.

As for the matter of attacking Bazhou by going upstream from Jiujiang, he plans to dispatch a portion of the Marine soldiers to attempt it.

Unlike the training of the Prince's Personal Army, there is one item in the daily training of the Marine soldiers that is emphasized.

That is water proficiency.

In the water, the Marine soldiers are as agile as fish.

Even if the warship sinks, their chances of survival are higher than those of the Prince's Personal Army soldiers.

"Yes, Your Highness," Chang Wei replied.

Including the ten thousand left in the three southeastern prefectures and the ten thousand who have already headed to Yuezhou and Guizhou.

They have left thirty thousand men in Jiangnan.

These thirty thousand men are enough to deal with any sudden situation.

As the two were speaking, a soldier walked in and handed a letter to Zhao Xu.

Zhao Xu unfolded the letter and scanned it, revealing a smile.

This letter was from Wang Chong; in the letter, Wang Chong gave him a surprise.

It turned out that just as the southern campaign began, Li Wei, who was in charge of electricity experiments, had built the first Generator.

Afterward, following the blueprints and with the cooperation of the corresponding Workshop, he built a transformer.

Immediately, they were going to conduct a thermal power generation test.

In the letter, Wang Chong also asked him if he wanted to participate in person.

Regarding this matter, Zhao Xu naturally had to participate.

After all, this is a historic event.

Although this is only a thermal power generation test, the door to the Second Industrial Revolution, the Electricity revolution, has already been pried open.

From now on, Dasong will realize a leap from catching up to surpassing the Western Lands in industry.

"This Prince must return for a trip; once you have dealt with the prisoners, lead the troops to Jiameng Pass, and this Prince will rendezvous with you all then," Zhao Xu said.

Too many prisoners were captured this time, and it will take some effort to dispose of them.

Otherwise, these people will incite chaos.

In the war between Qin and Zhao, Bai Qi burying forty thousand Zhao troops alive was not because Bai Qi was cruel.

It was rather because that excellent general, Bai Qi, knew very clearly that keeping these captives and feeding them would be a heavy burden on logistics.

If left alone, these starving, able-bodied men could rebel in the rear at any time, so it was simpler to just kill them directly.

However, he naturally had no need to learn from Bai Qi's methods.

Firstly, after the summer harvest, the grain and grass in Jiangnan were plentiful.

Secondly, killing so many able-bodied men would be a loss for Great Song.

At that time, the Qin Kingdom only needed to face the six states and did not need to consider threats outside the Central Plains, so they could naturally act that way.

But what he wanted was to preserve the strength of Great Song as much as possible while waging war.

Therefore, when Chang Wei had dealt with these captives and arrived north at Jiameng Pass, he had also basically arranged the next steps for the development of Electricity.

Having settled this matter, Zhao Xu boarded a Steamship the next day to return to Yanzhou.

In three days' time, he had returned to Yancheng.

By this time, news of the war in Jiangzhou and Xiangzhou had also reached Ba City.

Upon hearing this news, Liang Kai felt as if a thunderbolt had struck his head; he remained dazed for the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, then immediately burst into loud wailing.

In the temporary palace, whether it was Luse, Brook, Han Zheng, Wang Zi'an, or Xie Duan, all of them looked ashen, like bean sprouts withered by the sun.

Especially Han Zheng, Wang Zi'an, and Xie Duan.

Originally, they were going to Changcheng to oversee the battle; the three of them were heading toward Shacheng via a mountain path, intending to go from Shacheng to Changcheng.

But they had not expected to learn the news of Shacheng's fall halfway there.

Sensing that things were looking dire, they immediately returned to Ba City.

Yet in less than half a month, their million-strong army was actually gone.

This meant that Wu was left with only the tiny Bazhou.

"Father Emperor!" Just then, Liang Kai's crying suddenly stopped, and he fell from his chair, having cried himself into a dead faint.

Seeing this, Liang Feng immediately rushed forward.

The others also crowded around, some fanning him, others pinching his philtrum.

After a long while, Liang Kai slowly woke up, looked at the crowd, and said sorrowfully: "It's over, it's all over; we have nothing left, we can only huddle in this tiny Bazhou and wait for death."

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