Chapter 1820: Bitter Remonstrance in the Palace

At this time, Australia.

The war on the Australian seas has already begun, and the Longyan Navy led by Cao Xi has suffered heavy losses in the battle against the French forces.

This support plan has, against all wishes, ended in failure.

Upon learning that the French navy was already running rampant on the seas, Xie Fang did not make the decision to prepare for war immediately.

Old General Li caused a scene in the imperial court over this matter; he is an old general of the Longyan Army who once rendered distinguished service to Longyan.

He is one of the earliest generals to follow Xie Fang.

But he obeys orders but not summons; Old General Li followed Xie Fang purely because he was once the Longyan Crown Prince.

After arriving in Australia, within the imperial court established by Xie Fang, Old General Li never attended a single morning court session, nor has he held command over the Longyan Navy again.

If not for this time, with his son trapped on Tasmania Island in an unknown situation, he would not have gone with Cao Xi.

He carries great weight, and he openly pressured Xie Fang in the imperial court.

"Xie Fang, you send the troops, or I myself will go to the camp to lead the soldiers!"

"I want to see if the Longyan Army will follow me into battle or not."

Xie Fang sat on the Dragon Throne but felt as if he were sitting on pins and needles; facing Old General Li's verbal abuse, he had no way to respond.

He only hoped that the ministers would stand up and stop this old brute.

But the ministers in the court all seemed as if they were blind and deaf, letting Old General Li hurl abuse and acting as if they saw nothing.

On one side is Xie Fang, the current Emperor, and on the other is Old General Li, the person with the highest prestige in the Longyan Army, bar none.

They could not afford to offend either side, so they all pretended not to see.

"One word: are you sending troops or not!"

Xie Fang was forced into a corner with no Method, and could only bite the bullet and say: "Send the troops, send the troops!"

Old General Li glanced at him, snorted coldly, and flicked his sleeves as he left.

Xie Fang gasped for air, staring at Old General Li's departure; if it weren't for the fact that he was currently relying on him to wipe out the French forces, he would have arranged for him to be dealt with one way or another.

After calming his breathing, Xie Fang rubbed his forehead, feeling vexed and distracted.

It was not that he did not want to send troops to suppress them; as the actual controller of Australia, he naturally wanted to drive the invading French forces away.

But the finances are currently difficult, and naval warfare requires building warships.

Although the Yinzhou Battleship is powerful, it is also expensive to build.

And that is not all.

Delu controls the economy on Tasmania Island and is also a major taxpayer.

With his rebellion, many Merchant Households on the island have also refused to pay taxes, claiming that Xie Fang did not protect their interests well.

This caused their goods on Tasmania Island to be lost, resulting in heavy losses.

These are all foreign merchants, but the foreign merchants that Australia attracted for development in the beginning have brought hidden dangers to Australia, as well as wealth.

Now that the war has broken out, the hidden dangers buried by previous policies have already erupted.

Many Merchant Households have even begun to prepare to leave Australia to do business elsewhere.

For Xie Fang's government, this is absolutely a major blow.

"Internal trouble and external aggression..." Xie Fang sighed and murmured.

He looked at the ministers below and sighed: "Now is a time of crisis; all dukes and ministers should contribute their meager efforts to the country, and salaries shall be reduced by thirty percent to support the national treasury."

The ministers glanced at Xie Fang, lowered their heads, and said in deep voices: "Thank you, Your Majesty."

At this time, on the other side of Australia.

After Li He occupied the flour mill, he quickly set up defensive structures there to prevent the French forces from coming to attack and taking it back.

But what Li He did not know was that both Delu and Huo En were aware that they had lost a flour mill of no small significance.

"General Huo En, are we really just going to let these remnants of the Longyan Army continue to develop?"

Delu raised an eyebrow,

and asked.

Huo En neither denied nor admitted it, but instead said: "Our naval battle with Xie Fang cost us two battleships, and the other two battleships also sustained battle damage and need repairs."

"The Longyan Army's losses were merely an old sailing ship from the Great Age of Discovery; the Yinzhou Battleship did not sink a single one."

"This battle is not as simple as we imagined."

Hearing General Huo En's non-answer, Delu frowned.

Their French Empire's ultimate goal is to occupy Australia and obtain Longyan's technology.

But just one engagement caused them to lose two battleships, which shows the terror of the Longyan Yinzhou Battleship.

Huo En took a deep breath: "We do not have enough energy right now to pay attention to those small figures."

"They obtained the flour mill, but it is only a few bags of rations; without Wheat, what use is this flour mill?"

"Don't worry about them; has any news come from America?"

Delu pondered for a moment and said: "Not yet; it is said that the conflict there with Britain is very serious, and they may not necessarily lend us ships."

Huo En sighed and looked at the map: "We must hurry; I heard that Britain has developed a new type of Steam Battleship, reportedly equipped with a Steam Engine produced by Longyan."

"Both speed and power have been greatly improved; if this is true, our status on the seas will be completely lost."

"Those colonies of our French Empire will also likely fall into the hands of Britain and Longyan."

"We must crush Australia now and obtain Longyan's technology."

"Only then will we still have a chance in this war."

On the other side of the Australian battlefield.

Li He looked at the grain stored in the flour mill; it was not as much as he had imagined, and one could even say it was scarce.

For him, this was certainly not good news.

Now that the Wheat is completely controlled by the French, and Delu controls the island's economy, controlling the food supply is even easier than turning over one's hand.

"The current food supply can only last for one month. If there is no more food after a month, our situation will become very dangerous."

Someone said in a deep voice.

Everyone looked at Li He, but he did not make a sound.

After a while, he looked at everyone's gazes and only then said: "I actually think that food is not the key to our current problem."

"Tell me, why is it that after we captured the flour mill, the French knew the information, yet after so long, they haven't sent a single French troop to attack us?"

"Everyone think about it, isn't it very strange?"

The crowd fell into deep thought.

Ge Dazhuang scratched his head and said unintentionally: "Isn't it better if they don't attack us? Maybe the French have also been attacked by someone else."

"Correct!" Li He's eyes lit up: "This possibility cannot be ruled out."

He added: "So much time has passed, it is impossible for the Imperial Court not to have sensed some accident, and according to His Majesty's personality, he would definitely send troops to attack."

"Based on this, the French troops might currently be clashing with our fleet at sea!"

"That is why they don't have enough energy to deal with us."

Everyone's eyes lit up, and they looked at Li He, asking: "Then should we just do nothing next and wait for our troops to land?"

Li He shook his head and said: "No, not only can we not do that, we must also do some things that can attract the French's attention."

"Raiding a small flour mill is painless and itchless for the French." The recent transcoding is serious, let us have more motivation, update faster, please move your little hands to exit reading mode. Thank you.