Chapter 1006: Hope Amidst Despair

For Niu Chaofeng, taking this town was naturally a matter of course.

This battle would also determine the ownership of the entire Xingkai Lake.

Niu Chaofeng did not know why Minister Liu cared so much about a Xingkai Lake. In several orders, the Liaodong Prefecture had specifically stated that Xingkai Lake must belong entirely to Longyan; this was what Liu Zheng demanded.

What he did not know was.

For Liu Zheng, Xingkai Lake actually represented the dignity of Longyan.

The reason was one everyone knew.

In Liu Zheng's previous life, Xingkai Lake was originally a place of great controversy.

Originally, this place belonged entirely to Zhongguo.

However, in that era of humiliation, this place became the border between Zhongguo and Russia. The southern part already belonged to Russia. Only one-third remained as Zhongguo's.

Regardless of how the relations were.

Liu Zheng had always felt that this was a humiliation.

Including other places...

This was also the reason why he had been secretly supporting Niu Chaofeng.

He knew the ambition of Russia, he knew the character of these Russians, and their desire to rule the world. He also knew of the great talent and bold vision of Peter the Great.

In this small town, the Defense Army had begun to become standardized.

There were already a full five thousand men.

This also meant that they were getting closer and closer to the true heartland of Russia.

This had to do with the advantages of Xingkai Lake. Xingkai Lake was famous in ancient times for its abundance of "Meituo Crucian Carp," so it was called "North Qin Sea" during the Jin Dynasty. From the name "Sea," one could see that Xingkai Lake was extremely vast. The entire Xingkai Lake was over one hundred kilometers long and fifty kilometers wide, with a total area reaching over four thousand square kilometers. In terms of area alone, one Xingkai Lake was already as large as six Singapores. This place was not only rich in resources, but it was also a place of strategic importance for military strategists. Why? Because the water capacity of Xingkai Lake could accommodate the navy of an entire country to train there.

What kind of concept was this?

Liu Zheng knew that Peter the Great of Russia attached great importance to the development of the navy. Perhaps Russia had not yet reacted, as they were still focusing more of their attention on Europe. Once they reacted and held Xingkai Lake in their hands, it would certainly threaten Liu Zheng's entire plan for Asia.

"Kill!"

"These Russians are really capable of fighting!"

"Hahahaha, if our thirty thousand men couldn't take a small town after more than ten days, we might as well all just die!"

The battle situation remained intense.

The combat effectiveness of the fighting nation indeed had unique advantages. Looking at the current battle situation, Niu Chaofeng still felt some relief; this battle was taking place in summer, which was still friendly to these Longyan soldiers. If it had occurred in winter, he feared they absolutely would not have been able to beat these Russians.

Even so.

They were only occupying the advantage in the battle by relying on the advanced Weaponry and Equipment provided to them by Liangzhou.

As for the Weaponry and Equipment of these Russians, let's not even mention it; it was still at a very backward stage.

Charge after charge, general offensive after general offensive.

Battle after battle, slaughter after slaughter.

Finally.

This small town was still taken by Niu Chaofeng's side.

However.

Their losses were not small either.

Three thousand killed in action, two thousand seriously wounded.

While cleaning up the aftermath, the villagers of this small town had already fled.

The flames of war continued to burn.

The soldiers on Niu Chaofeng's side began all kinds of cheering and celebrating.

Niu Chaofeng also let out a sigh of relief.

He could rest for a while...

He had to reorganize the troops in the shortest possible time, because it was very likely that the next thing awaiting him would be a major battle.

Just as Su Qi led the Warship away from the vicinity of Australia.

He encountered the most terrifying thing on the sea.

A storm.

A massive storm caught these naval forces somewhat off guard.

The lethality of a storm at sea was naturally beyond doubt.

Fortunately, the Yinzhou ships were still able to withstand the tossing. In this storm, the Liangzhou navy lost more than a thousand men... This was enough to make Su Qi feel heartbroken. But more importantly, they had lost their direction.

In the storm, the compass completely lost its effectiveness.

By the time the storm passed, they no longer knew where they had appeared.

In all directions, it was a vast expanse, all ocean.

Su Qi also used a Telescope to look at the unfamiliar environment before him.

He was stunned.

What was he to do?

In this vast ocean, in which direction should he go?

"Send out speedboats to scout!"

Soon, he dispatched more than a dozen speedboats.

However...

On the first day, as the sky grew dark, when the speedboats returned, they still had not found any familiar landmarks.

On the second day, it was still the same.

On the third day, it was the same.

The fourth day...

The fifth day...

"Let them come back!"

They were lost at sea.

Su Qi had already resigned herself to fate.

"That General..."

"We..."

"Pick a direction and keep going!"

Su Qi was also helpless.

"Yes!"

These twenty Warships consumed quite a lot of rations in a single day; although they had collected a fair amount of food while passing by various small islands and islets along the way, they still could not quite endure such a situation of sitting and eating until the supplies were exhausted.

She did the math.

Su Qi received a piece of information that made her despair.

The food on the twenty ships was only enough for them to eat for seven days...

Seven days...

The situation was quite dire.

"Pass down the order: accelerate at full speed!"

"Yes!"

Under these circumstances, they could only accelerate and then pick a direction, because even if it were a primitive island, it was unlikely that it would have enough food for all these people.

She at least had to find a tribe.

And it had to be a large tribe.

As for which direction.

That could only be left to fate.

And so.

The first day of another round.

The second day.

The third day...

The fourth day...

The fifth day...

"Reduce everyone's daily rations by half!"

Su Qi issued another order.

"Yes!"

This kind of situation was actually the most despairing; twenty ships and an army of sixty thousand, clearly possessing super-strong combat power, yet they were about to starve to death here?

However.

The sea was just that ruthless.

By the sixth day.

Su Qi had already begun organizing these soldiers to fish on the sea.

The seventh day...

People had already started to go hungry.

The ninth day...

The tenth day.

Finally, among the dozens of speedboats that had been sent out, one returned with joyful shouts.

"Found it, found it!"

"A large island!"

"There should be natives on it!"

At this, everyone became excited.

"What?"

"Natives?"

"That's great!"

As long as there were natives, as long as there were humans, there would be the habit of stockpiling grain.

"Set off!"

Su Qi was also in high spirits, waving her hand.

The twenty Yinzhou warships began to turn their bows and set off in the same direction. Pop-ups are frequent lately, you can click to download to avoid pop-ups.