Chapter 1035: Tense Atmosphere

"Quick, quick, quick, this way!"

"Run, everyone run!"

Dragon Flame Nation to the south.

The Southern Barbarian Lands.

At this moment, Huobu Quli had just exerted every ounce of his strength to take down the entirety of Jiaozhou, as well as the Canglan Kingdom. The powerful Liangshan Army had maintained an absolute advantage throughout this two-year-long war. Not only that, but the combat effectiveness of the Liangshan Army had also multiplied over these two years.

War is always the best way to train troops.

Three hundred thousand.

At this time, the troop strength under Huobu Quli's command could already be maintained at three hundred thousand. If they were lost, they would continue to be replenished, replenished, and then continue to fight and train. For these two years, this was how Huobu Quli and his men had fought their way through.

"Haha, Big Brother, those scumbags from the Canglan Kingdom can no longer stir up any trouble!"

Huobu Quli's younger brother, Huobu Zhuoli, laughed heartily on his War Horse.

Huobu Quli also smiled slightly, his face full of gratification.

This time.

Their great army had completely taken down the last remaining vital force of the Canglan royal family, who had been fleeing into various mountain and forest regions and lingering on in a desperate struggle. The reason this process took over a year was truly because these Canglan people were far too familiar with the local mountainous terrain.

This also cost Huobu Quli a great price. Because of this, the Liangshan Army had been depleted by twenty thousand men over the past year due to the Canglan Kingdom's Guerrilla Warfare.

Twenty thousand.

Huobu Quli still felt a deep heartache.

Fortunately, the Canglan Kingdom had now been completely taken down by him. He let out a long sigh of relief in his heart, because it was more or less in line with the Young Master's plan, though slightly late...

"Bring them over!"

Huobu Zhuoli roared.

Soon, the fleeing royal family members of the Canglan Kingdom were brought over. A group of people crowded around an old man who was still dressed in magnificent attire; the old man was trembling, but even in this situation, he was still covered in gold and silver, incomparably luxurious.

A flash of intense contempt and hatred crossed Huobu Quli's eyes.

He had long understood this place, the Canglan Kingdom; this small nation's Absolute Monarchy had reached an extreme state. The royal family was incomparably extravagant, while their own subjects were starving and in rags. In a place as rich as Laos, the history of the Canglan Kingdom had actually seen several great famines, with corpses strewn across the fields. This situation was something that even the backward Liangshan of the past could not compare to.

In Huobu Quli's view, this Canglan Kingdom sounded very romantic by name, but in reality, its interior was filled with bloody crimes.

"General..."

"General, spare our lives!"

Seeing the burly Huobu Quli, the Canglan royal family immediately began to kneel and kowtow, wailing in various ways.

Huobu Quli looked at this group of people coldly.

He knew well that the local Guerrilla Force led by this royal family had killed quite a few of his brothers.

This thing called a royal family...

Keeping them was merely keeping a malignant tumor.

"Kill!"

Huobu Quli ordered coldly.

In an instant, all the captured people of the Canglan Kingdom were beheaded. Today, this mountain forest would be filled with wandering souls.

To cut off future trouble once and for all.

Huobu Quli did not avoid this bloody scene, because he knew that time was running short.

The current situation within the Dragon Flame Nation was extremely complex.

He had to end the matters here as soon as possible.

And then...

Take the most combat-capable troops in his hands to the nearest Train station.

That's right.

A Train station.

It was a Train station that Liangshan had been rushing to build overnight during this period. By that time, if there were any sudden developments within the Dragon Flame Nation, then Huobu Quli's three hundred thousand-strong army would be a Surprise Unit...

A true Surprise Unit!

Everyone believed that regarding the current situation in the Dragon Flame Nation, the Liangzhou side, under the intentional suppression of Xie Tianyao, no longer possessed the capital to contend for the throne.

Because their troop strength was too small.

After the disarmament, the number of combat-ready troops in Liangzhou was only two hundred thousand... and the other one hundred thousand were basically new recruits who had never experienced war.

Under such circumstances...

What could Liangzhou use to compete with the other Feudatory Kings?

As for the Western Regions, the Southern Barbarian Lands, and Central Asia... those troops were simply too far away. They were beyond reach, and the current transportation was simply insufficient to allow them to return to reinforce the country in a short time.

However.

Liu Zheng had made arrangements long ago.

A year ago, he had begun preparing the Steam Train; a year ago, he had begun planning all of this.

At this time...

It was time to prepare.

Huobu Quli took a deep breath.

Dragon Flame was about to fall into chaos.

The Young Master was about to rise.

The era that belonged to them was about to arrive.

The funeral procession was still moving forward.

Inside the imperial carriage, Xie Tianyao quietly looked over the intelligence from various regions sent by the Secret Guard, not saying a word.

Grand Eunuch Zhou attended to him from the side: "Your Majesty, as for Liangzhou, they are still very well-behaved at the moment... Whether it is the troops of the Southern Barbarians, the troops of the Western Regions, or even Ling Chen of their East India, they have all already reached the Mediterranean Sea of the Western Ocean... This..."

Xie Tianyao let out a breath, his gloomy eyes fixed on Grand Eunuch Zhou, and said indifferently: "Lao Zhou, just how many favors have you received from Liangzhou? You are always speaking on their behalf."

Grand Eunuch Zhou trembled all over, nearly crying: "Your Majesty, heaven and earth are my witness, heaven and earth are my witness, this old servant has no such intention... I am merely analyzing objectively."

Xie Tianyao laughed out loud, laughing until tears were about to stream down.

That was right.

The movements of any troops from Liangzhou were all under his control, within his grasp. Having stayed in the deep palace of Longyan for decades, he still possessed that much capability.

Xie Tianyao gave a self-deprecating smile: "Wanting to use him, yet wanting to guard against him..."

"Lao Zhou, tell me, why is this young man so contradictory?"

Grand Eunuch Zhou dared not speak anymore.

He naturally understood Xie Tianyao's conflicted state of mind. This Liu Zheng was truly too formidable; one could say that the Longyan Dynasty, having lasted for thousands of years, had never been as powerful as it was today, flourishing everywhere. This was the best Longyan, and likewise, everyone firmly believed that the future Longyan would be an even better Longyan.

However...

The imperial house and Absolute Monarchy had become things that were out of place at this moment.

The contradiction between these two things was the conflict that truly made Xie Tianyao struggle.

The ancestral temples and the state were the only faith that the Huaxia civilization had sustained for thousands of years. No matter how grand Xie Tianyao's vision was, he did not want the ancestral temples and the state to be ruined in his own hands... Naturally, he was also unwilling for them to be ruined in the hands of his successors.

The way of employing people.

The way of checks and balances.

These were things every monarch needed to spend their entire life pondering.

However.

Liu Zheng was simply too dazzling.

After confirming there were no illicit activities from Liangzhou, Xie Tianyao finally took a deep breath.

As long as this fellow had no special actions, he could rest easy.

As for those other Feudatory Kings and Scholar-officials, no matter how much they struggled, they could not jump out of the palm of his hand.