Munitions Empire-Chapter 1108: Go back on the same track to Hezhe at 1030.
The south of the city is now under the control of Zhao Jie’s troops, while the east and west of the city, plus the Imperial Palace, are controlled by Li Mingshun’s forces. The two sides are engaged in fierce combat, but the north of the city is truly without incident.
Li Mingshun currently has no time to deal with the senior officials and their families, and he is also powerless to do so: the other side is neither fleeing nor rebelling. What authority does a City Defense Army Commander have to control the Chief of Staff and the former Imperial Chancellor?
Therefore, he can only turn a blind eye, letting those people gather in the north of the city. Right now, he feels that he should concentrate his forces and take out the rebel Zhao Jie first!
Actually, his military strength is superior; Zhao Jie only brought 2,000 men with him, elite but without reinforcements.
However, because Zhao Jie has gained the support from the Patrol Office and the Old Nobility of Dahua, Li Mingshun is unable to subdue this formidable enemy for the moment.
Zhao Jie’s forces are larger than Li Mingshun estimated. Now Zhao Jie has at least 5,000 troops, and although less than half are elite, their combat power is indeed astonishing.
These are elite soldiers who have genuinely seen combat in Shanchong, fiercer than the Imperial Guard stationed in the capital of the Dahua Empire. Depending on street defense, Li Mingshun truly has no way to deal with Zhao Jie for the time being.
As soon as the battle began, the Silver Fox Tavern dispatched some cars to pick up important personnel together, ensuring their safety.
The rebellious Fifth Prince and Sixth Prince gave face. The cars from the Silver Fox Tavern drove unimpeded on the main roads, without encountering any interception or danger.
After the entire family was moved to the safety of the north of the city by car, Prime Minister Chu Muzhou saw the awkward-looking Minister of Public Works Chen Jing and Minister of Revenue Wang Yucái in a separate residence.
After the three of them exchanged worried greetings, they learned that the city had descended into chaos.
And the intelligence department of the Great Tang Empire brought news that Crown Prince Zhao Ji had already withdrawn troops from Hezhe, with the vanguard forces nearing Dongqing City.
"How could he dare to return to Dongqing? How could he?" Even Minister of Public Works Chen Jing could see the gravity of the situation and asked in anger. freēwēbηovel.c૦m
Wang Yucái scoffed and said, "With the situation as it is now, if he doesn’t come back, what does he have to do with the throne of the Emperor?"
"But if he comes back, what about Zhao Chen who’s still in Fengjiang?" Chen Jing angrily looked towards Wang Yucái, turning back to question him.
"Whether Zhao Chen is in Fengjiang or not is yet to be seen. If he has already retreated to Hezhe early on, the situation might still be salvageable!" Prime Minister Chu Muzhou expressed his view: "Unfortunately, it’s likely that Zhao Chen wasn’t that fast..."
Not just not that fast!
"I curse Zhao Ji’s eighteen generations—" Zhao Chen started to curse quickly but then remembered that it was not quite appropriate to vent about himself and his ancestors in an improper relationship. He closed his mouth, but his face had already turned livid with rage.
After the meeting in Hezhe, Zhao Chen had begged Zhao Ji to hold out for over 20 days! But what about now? What about now? Zhao Ji didn’t even stand his ground in Hezhe for a full seven days before retreating.
What angered Zhao Chen the most was that Zhao Ji didn’t consider the millions of troops in Fengjiang at all. He took away the entire 300,000 troops that could be transferred from Hezhe! He left virtually no garrison troops behind, making Hezhe effectively an empty city now.
The Great Tang’s military advisory command team in Hezhe’s southern region certainly wouldn’t miss such a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. They immediately launched an attack on Hezhe, and the few thousand defenders did not even think twice before deserting overnight.
Yes, Hezhe was lost, and it happened just a few hours after Zhao Ji withdrew his troops. How swiftly was it lost? The retreating forces didn’t even have time to destroy the stockpiled munitions and supplies in Hezhe.
To increase the speed of his troops, Zhao Ji hardly carried any supplies with him! He was truly in a rush to get back and compete for the heirship, without a second thought for anything else.
Upon hearing that the Imperial Capital was in turmoil, he began to prepare for retreat. After receiving a telegram from Li Mingshun, Zhao Ji could not care about anything else: he genuinely didn’t expect Zhao Jie to appear in the Imperial Capital, so Zhao Ji rushed there at all costs.
To ensure his own speed, Zhao Ji commandeered all the trains that were assembled in Hezhe, which were supposed to aid the retreat of Zhao Chen’s troops.
Besides, he also took all the airplanes and transported away all the munitions he could carry, but left behind other military supplies stockpiled in Hezhe.
Luo Xiao, leading one hundred thousand Fengjiang Troops into Hezhe, here received a total of one million military uniforms, 300,000 Steel Helmets, 100,000 blankets, 200,000 tents, as well as food and ammunition including artillery shells.
Mountains of other supplies were stockpiled, as Hezhe had served as a storage depot for Dahua military supplies for nearly the past year.
There was too much here, and they dared not to carelessly distribute it all to the front line, resulting in everything being left for the Fengjiang forces, who gained a significant advantage.
"These unworthy descendants of the Zhao clan! They’ve lost all of our ancestors’ possessions! Lost them! Worthless trash! Have they no shame? No shame at all?" Zhao Chen hammered the table, unable to contain his rage as he cursed loudly in his headquarters.
In fact, Zhao Chen had already been retreating his troops at the fastest speed possible. He had nearly 800,000 troops around Fengjiang, and the ones retreating the quickest were now less than 30 kilometers away from Hezhe.
Yet within a matter of hours, Zhao Ji didn’t wait for him: now nearly 300,000 of Zhao Chen’s forces were trapped along the railroad line back to Hezhe, half a cluster of them in a vulnerable state on the march.
These troops were now out in the open, without strong defensive fortifications, food supplies, or ammunition. They were extremely vulnerable and had no capacity to fight.
If they were to pull back to Fengjiang, they could rely on half of the Fengjiang urban area and some surrounding strongholds to hold out. But with no external reinforcements and no food supplies, it would basically be a sitting duck situation.
A full retreat of the army would be a huge gamble: if they could retake Hezhe, they might have a way out. But if they failed, it would mean the utter rout of 800,000 troops in the wilderness, with barely one out of ten likely to survive.
"Zhao Jie! Zhao Jie has betrayed the country!" Thinking of this cousin, Zhao Chen was itchy with hatred: If it weren’t for this scoundrel Zhao Jie suggesting to Zhao Kai the idea to abandon Shanping, the Dahua Empire’s situation wouldn’t have collapsed to such a state!
Unable to bear it any longer, Zhao Chen smashed another water glass on the ground, and the faces of the surrounding officers darkened to the extreme.
At this moment, they had no train support from the direction of Hezhe. How easy would it be to mobilize tens of thousands of troops? Even if a few Armored Divisions could fight in the field, that was still only a drop in the bucket compared to the total number.
"General! It’s too late to say anything now! We have to find a way out for these more than 800,000 troops!" A general spoke up, his voice filled with despair.
They didn’t know what to do, having lost ammunition resupply and food. If Fengjiang cut off smuggling, they wouldn’t be able to hold out for even two days!
"Concentrate all the fuel supply to the two Armored Divisions! Try to scrounge up enough ammunition! Gather the troops near Hezhe, attempt to retake Hezhe, and open a path for retreat... This is already our only way out," Zhao Chen thought for a moment and offered a somewhat viable plan.
"General! General! Bad news!" At this moment, an officer burst in, panting as he exclaimed: "Fengjiang, Fengjiang forces have launched a counterattack, fiercely attacking our rear-guard troops..."
"As if they’d let us leave without a hitch!" Zhao Chen sighed bitterly and said, "Can we get in touch with Zhao Yu’s men, tell them, let us leave, and we won’t take anything, just let us pass through Hezhe, we don’t want Hezhe or even the towns north of Hezhe in the wilderness!"
He had already lost the determination to fight, as long as he could take the 800,000-strong army away, he didn’t want Hezhe or the towns in the wilderness north of Hezhe.
As long as he could take away the 800,000-strong flesh and blood of Dahua and stabilize the situation in the court, to prevent the Dahua Empire from falling on their generation’s watch...
"General! The adversary’s offensive is fierce, I estimate... I estimate that..." The message-bearing officer explained to Zhao Chen with a pained expression.
Zhao Chen nodded: "Right, it wouldn’t be their style if they didn’t kick us while we’re down. Order the rear-guard troops to fight to the death! The rest of the troops, retreat immediately! Even if we have to walk, we must make it back to Hezhe!"
He had only one hope now: that the enemy forces in the direction of Hezhe had not completed their defenses, so he might be able to detour some forces around both flanks. By then, the 800,000 troops would disperse, and it was feasible to escape back to Xiajiang City to strategize.
Unfortunately, it was bound to be a terrible defeat: if half of the 800,000-strong army could make it back to Xiajiang, it would be considered divine protection from their ancestors! It was likely that only 300,000 or even 250,000 would remain.
Even if only 200,000 were left, Zhao Chen thought it was worth a try. Without these 200,000 troops, Xiajiang would not be defensible! If Xiajiang couldn’t be held, Dongqing might not hold either! If Dongqing were lost, would not the gates to the Imperial Capital be wide open?
"Yes!" The officer hurried out to convey Zhao Chen’s orders. Just then, another officer rushed in to report that dozens of bombers from Fengjiang’s rebels had bombed the railroad in Hezhe!
"What? They destroyed the railroad?" Zhao Chen was stunned by the news, then stumbled: The Great Tang Empire had lost all face, and Fengjiang’s courage to damage the railroad must have been condoned by the Great Tang!
The railroad had previously been sacrosanct to both sides, and even in wartime, neither had dared to engage in battle actions along the railroad. And now, Fengjiang sent bombers to destroy the railroad!
With the railroad gone, Dahua forces’ already limited transportation capability was completely wiped out. Now Zhao Chen could truly only depend on his troops’ legs to make it back to Hezhe.
But Hezhe was so far away, could they make it back... in time?
