Chapter 1950: The Leap Forward

At this moment, on the battlefield of Australia.

The French troops, under the leadership of Delu, are advancing rapidly.

The Longyan Army led by Xie Fang has already been so corrupted by his previous military leasing policy that it possesses little combat effectiveness.

Old General Li is the current Commander-in-Chief in Australia.

There is an old Longyan saying: an incompetent general exhausts the three armies!

But now, this saying is exactly the opposite; no matter how brilliant Old General Li's commands are, these Longyan Army soldiers execute them in a muddled fashion.

Once, they even fought an ambush.

But because of the weather, this unit of the Longyan Army executing the mission arrived half an hour late.

As a result, an ambush was turned into a head-on encounter.

As for the final outcome, it goes without saying: three thousand Longyan Army soldiers attacked five thousand French troops.

The Longyan Army side was defeated, and this was an attack launched by the commander while clearly knowing the enemy's combat strength.

In short, after these various battles, Old General Li is left speechless.

Having fought for nearly a lifetime, he has never encountered such a speechless way of conducting warfare.

But afterward, Old General Li only strictly punished that commander; he did not remove him from his post!

Changing generals before a battle is a great taboo, especially now that their fighting with the French Army has reached a white-hot stage; if the army's commander were to be adjusted now...

Then the newly appointed commander would inevitably be unfamiliar with the troops, which would further increase the difficulty of operations.

But now, the Longyan Army is retreating steadily.

Naval warfare relies on weapons; although the integrity of the army is important, the navy is not the army.

Xie Fang's navy was not leased out, and it still maintains strong combat effectiveness.

It is just that the number of Yinzhou ships has not been replenished after such a long time of squandering by Xie Fang.

Therefore, the Longyan Navy can only harbor hatred on the spot; they even controlled a hit Longyan Yinzhou ship to ram and sink a French Army Battleship.

But the heroism of the navy cannot affect the overall war situation.

After the French troops landed, their rapid advance has now reached the gates of Xini Cheng!

This is an important city of Xie Fang's government, and also a very important port city.

Because of Xie Fang's free trade policy, the daily throughput of Sydney Port has already reached a terrifying level, with little difference compared to Longyan's top-tier ports.

But at this moment, this Sydney Port has already been occupied by the French troops who landed on Australian territory.

Xie Fang and the princes and ministers, upon learning that the Longyan Navy could not hold out, immediately fled.

Leaving only Old General Li and the Longyan Army to hold the line here.

After taking Sydney Port, Delu's troops were not in a hurry to advance; for them, what needed to be occupied was not just Sydney, but more importantly, the factories and technical personnel on Australia that possessed Longyan technology.

In their eyes, these people are the most precious assets of the Australian Government.

But when Xie Fang retreated, he did not take these personnel away at all; in their eyes, the lives of nobles are much more precious than the lives of these servants.

Xie Fang's Prime Minister had once tried to dissuade Xie Fang, urging him to take away the technical personnel aided by Longyan, and to smash those factories so that these French would not obtain Longyan technology.

But clearly, Xie Fang did not listen to the Prime Minister's suggestion.

He left these technical personnel and factories behind, only dispatching the Longyan Army to protect them.

But how could the already decayed Longyan Army be a match for these troops? They did not even fight for more than half an hour.

They had to surrender.

By the time Old General Li learned that fighting had occurred at the factories, the battle had long since ended, and the factories had all been occupied by the French troops.

He was so anxious that his anger surged; when the Prime Minister left, he had specifically urged him to be sure to look after those factories and technical personnel aided by Longyan.

They are the most precious wealth of Australia, but now these most precious assets of Australia have all been occupied by the French troops.

At this time, Delu's troops.

The temporary command post at Sydney Port.

Delu took stock of the spoils of this surprise attack; this time, their French troops attacked the five factories opened by Longyan in Sydney.

All achieved victory.

These five factories are the Steam Engine Manufacturing Plant, the Artillery Manufacturing Plant, the Textile Machine Factory, the Soap Factory, and the winery.

In total, they captured over 1,200 Longyan technical personnel.

This number is already quite considerable.

Delu was grateful to hear this news; he could wake up laughing from his dreams at night.

Not for anything else, such news is simply too wonderful for Delu.

Setting aside the factories and technology, just speaking of these 1,200 technical personnel alone.

The technical knowledge of Longyan they hold in their hands—as long as Delu takes them back to his country and makes these people open their mouths to reveal the secrets of Longyan technology.

Delu has already foreseen his own bright future.

To make them open their mouths, Delu did not treat them like other Longyan prisoners of war, with abuse, forced labor, and so on.

On the contrary, apart from their range of movement being restricted, Delu granted them the highest standard of treatment in other conditions.

He was also not in a hurry to extract information from their mouths; at least for now, it was not the time.

But there is one thing that belongs to what Delu must resolve as soon as possible.

That is supplies!

The French troops on Tasmania were mostly wiped out by the Resistance Army led by Li He; originally, in Delu's plan, he was to rely on Tasmania as his transit station and source of supplies.

But now that so many French troops on Tasmania have been wiped out, their regulatory strength has declined.

Although Li He has left, the seeds of resistance he left behind are still active.

Large-scale battles are still breaking out on Tasmania, and their French troops have already suppressed them with force.

At the very least, before a batch of French Soldiers lands on the island, the situation on Tasmania will not see any major changes.

Under such conditions, Tasmania cannot temporarily become a supply line for their French troops.

Therefore, Delu set his sights on the various cities of Sydney for his supply source during this period; the ordinary people there would be their natural granary.

Delu's next order was to have the French troops take action against those ordinary people under Xini Cheng.

It must be said that this was a very effective order.

The tactic of War-Nourished Warfare quickly allowed the French Soldiers to obtain massive supplies.

Moreover, doing this could also lure out the Longyan Army, which was a brilliant two-birds-with-one-stone strategy for Delu!

But at the same time, it also attracted the attention of the old General Li, who was guarding Xini Cheng; the refugees gathering under Xini Cheng had been increasing recently, and if this continued, Xini would collapse.

The old General Li learned from their mouths what the French troops were doing in the cities around Sydney!

The old General Li was filled with hatred, but as a veteran of the battlefield, he had to give up on attacking at such a time.

If he were to lead his troops out of the city to fight, he would lose the home-field advantage; relying on the combat power of these Longyan Army soldiers, once they lost the home-field advantage, they would be defeated.

By then, the French troops would march into Xini Cheng without the slightest hindrance!

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