Realm of Power

The city at midnight has a slightly melancholy atmosphere. There are no pedestrians on the streets. Only extremely dim lights dimly illuminate the streets, making the city look particularly deserted. However, in the Hot Spring Palace located halfway up the mountain, it is... The lights were brightly lit, and clerks carrying various documents were hurriedly coming and going.

In the largest conference room of the Hot Spring Palace, the imperial generals who hurried back from Deyang were all talking in low voices with curious faces. Among them, Suka, deputy commander of the Imperial Wilderness Corps, one of the main leaders, stood at the window. Staring at the gorgeous stars outside the window, I felt a little tangled in my heart. Deyang is on the line, and one hundred thousand Chinese coins are worth less than the runner-up. Just about to make a move, His Majesty the Emperor ordered the generals to convene a meeting. Once the Central Asian Army knew about it, it would be a tragic breakout battle. Moreover, he just paid attention and found out that the other deputy commander of the Wilderness Army was dead. Lihe did not come, which means that Mulihe should have been given other tasks by the emperor.

At this moment, the door of the conference room was pushed open, and a young man wearing a black imperial uniform walked in. At this moment, it seemed that even the air in the conference room had frozen. All the imperial generals present , stood up neatly and saluted "Your Majesty"

"Everyone, sit down"

The fat man came to the conference table and sat down. He raised his right hand and waved to the upright generals. With his left hand, he pressed a report on the table and said in a solemn voice, "An urgent order needs to be announced. I know what will happen to you." It is not appropriate to transfer back from the front line where the situation is severe, but I have to regret to tell you that the Deyang operation will be terminated from now on, and all troops must wait for three days. "Withdraw within a short period of time." The fat man's voice paused for a moment, and his eyes glanced at the stunned faces of the generals. Withdrawing troops from Deyang was like an arrow that had been shot, and it was as uncomfortable as having to stop it. But compared to Aden, Compared with the huge military operations demonstrated by the people in the southern sea of ​​​​China, continuing to insist on the decision to annihilate 100,000 Central and African troops at this moment will only be an advantage for the Aden people.

"Your Majesty, why is this?" Someone inside the general stood up hesitantly and said, it was Gulaku, the leader of the Second Flag of the Imperial Wilderness Legion,

"The empire has received news that all the main naval forces of the Kingdom of Aden have entered the Central Asian Sea. So far, more than 250,000 Aden troops are gathering." The fat man opened the report and stood up steadily, with a look on his face. He said coldly and calmly, "Because of the loss of Cornelia Port, the western seaport, the Aden people's trade routes in the west have been phased out, and the forces in the Barro region of Central Europe had to completely withdraw to the east of the desert, and exist To the east, our imperial navy also severely damaged the proud navy of the Aden people in the southern waters of Central Asia, cutting off the Aden people's trade routes in the east. In other words, the Aden Kingdom's current trade routes to the east and west, They have all been cut off. Although they are all cut off, compared to the empire's heavy troops in Cornelia in the west and the long desert obstruction, there is only the weak Central Asian Empire in the east. It is undoubtedly the expansion of the Aden people to the east. The best time”

"In other words, the people of Aden are ready to make a desperate move and gather all their strength to go to war with Central Biya!"

After hearing the words of His Majesty the Emperor, the generals all took a breath of air. The Kingdom of Aden is not a small country. Although it is not very prominent in the Obaro region, it was able to suppress the Istan Empire with all its strength at first, and then fought with the Eero Empire. In the battle for the Port of Cornelia, nearly a million troops were invested in the brutal strangulation for more than half a year, and the powerful Eero Empire was dragged to its logistical collapse. On the verge of collapse, if the empire had not provided timely assistance to the Eero Empire from behind, in the later stages of the war, Eero's soldiers might not even be equipped with weapons and armor, while Aden's troops were fighting one after another, and batches of people died one after another. , the number of the slave army became more and more, and they could not kill them all, and they could not fight them all. They overwhelmed the Ero army's connection and almost wiped out the national power accumulated for decades in one battle.

But in the end, Cornelia Port accidentally fell into the hands of the empire, and for some reason, the Aden people gave up on Cornelia Port.

But if all this is based on the fact that the Kingdom of Aden is actually far away from the mainland and is nearly a thousand miles away from the desert, it seems quite terrifying. Even the leading Eero Empire in southern Europe was almost defeated. I was dragged down by Aden, and now I am still After being suppressed by the Order State, you can imagine how strong the Kingdom of Aden is. If the millions of Aden troops were not invested in the Cornelia battlefield at the beginning, but in the Central Asian battlefield, I am afraid that now Zhongbia has been conquered by the Aden people,

"Everyone is well aware of the current situation in China and Libya. The 100,000 Central and Libyan troops in Deyang are already the only force currently capable of fighting in the Central and Libyan court. The Aden navy has been fully prepared, but has yet to move northward. , what we are waiting for is the end of the Deyang War, waiting for our emperor to annihilate all the 100,000 Central Asian troops in Deyang. "" Now is the season when the monsoon moves north, go with the wind, no need In five days, the Aden Navy can reach the southern coast of Central and Bibia, and then along the Central and African coastline, in a total of seven or eight days, the Aden Navy can land at six ports in the southern part of Central and Bibia. At that time, These ports are feared to have been controlled by Aden merchants for a long time. Facing the main force of Aden's navy advancing north, they are completely incapable of resisting. This is why the empire decided to abandon the Deyang operation."

Although they had already guessed that such a decision would be made, when the emperor said it, the generals present were still a little surprised and a little confused. The Aden people attacked Zhongbia, and the empire also attacked Zhongbia. There doesn't seem to be much conflict between the two sides. The generals don't know that the empire has invested huge sums of money in Liucheng Port. Now it seems that the place where the Aden people may land is Liucheng Port. All they need to do is to do everything possible. Try your best to get the benefits back, so Deyang must continue to fight and buy time for the empire.

"The Deyang front line is completely stopped now. As long as the other party does not take the initiative to attack, it will be fine for the time being." The emperor gave the order. The generals had no objection or doubt about the emperor's decision. In fact, the generals do not want to attack the Central Asian army. Although the morale of the Central Asian army is low, after all, it is only 100,000 people. It is risky to surround the army with the inferior force of the empire. If it is provoked too much, the 100,000 Central Asian army will fight to the death. And if they go out, even the emperor will have to pay a heavy price, and the generals can also see that what His Majesty the Emperor wants is not necessarily to annihilate these 100,000 emperors, but to take advantage of the dilemma of a hundred thousand troops trapped in Deyang. Put pressure on China and Libya

As for the annihilation of these 100,000 Central Asian troops, in terms of interests and strategy, there is actually not much change. It may boost the morale of the emperor, but it will also inevitably arouse the great hatred of the Central Asians towards the empire. The empire itself Since entering China, the good image that has been gained through tolerant measures may be lost due to these 100,000 Chinese people. The destruction of the Biah army was in vain, just like now in Central Bibia. In the hearts of the official court, the empire and even the Yelu family on the grassland are willing to be bloodthirsty beasts like eagles and dogs. It is a cruel and barbaric regime in the Western Continent. But in the In the eyes of the common people in Central and Bian, the series of changes brought about by the imperial power of the entire Western Continent of the Empire have made many civilians in Central and Bian feel curious and take action.

In the northwest, the empire absorbed refugees and distributed land. In Yanzhou, the empire purchased slaves from the prairie people in large numbers from the Daizhou frontier. On Dijing West Road, the empire’s land policy attracted a large number of Central Asians to return, even those who were stranded in Millions of Central and Southern refugees living along the Great River have chosen to abandon their country with the tacit approval of the empire. Instead of returning to the south, they injected it into Dijing West Road, which allowed the population of Dijing West Road, which originally only had a population of more than 200,000, to exceed 2.6 million in just two or three months. The rapidly growing population base, Let the Imperial Capital West Road truly become the empire's largest logistics base in Central Asia, completely solving the logistical problems of the empire's garrison.

According to the latest reported population, the total population controlled by the empire in the Central Biya region has reached six to seven million. If you include the Central Biya people controlled by the Yelü family and the northern tribes, the total population exceeds 20 million. , the empire's development trend in Central Asia is far beyond previous expectations. Eighty thousand imperial troops are stationed in the northwest, and one hundred thousand imperial soldiers are occupying the west road of the imperial capital. In addition, soldiers recruited from various grassland ministries With a total of 200,000 troops lying on the ground, looking north and south, they not only control thousands of miles of fertile land from the northwest wilderness to the imperial capital, but also hold the most important throat of Yanzhou. The empire is no longer a so-called foreign force. Rather, it is a powerful overlord-level existence that truly controls tens of millions of living beings in the northern region of Central and Bibia, just like a rising sun scorching the entire land of Central and Bibia.

In comparison, the situation of the Central and Asian courts in the south can be considered to be in decline.

Although there was an armistice with the Yelu family, the war with the Yelu family had already destroyed Linhang, the most prosperous area in the south. Tens of millions of refugees returning from the south were like a flood, impacting other southern regions, causing the Sino-Bian economy to have just eased. Almost collapsed. In order to soften the impact of the refugees, the court even ordered all large households with assets of more than 100 gold to donate food.

"Food Donation Order"

Calling on all large households to donate grain, this seemingly good decree immediately changed its flavor as soon as it left the area where the court was located.

The so-called big households are basically nobles. How is it possible to ask them to donate food? I didn't see that the ministers in the court, in order to protect their own fertile land, did not hesitate to force a hundred thousand troops to fight with the empire in Deyang. Why should the ministers donate food? The army can be used for protection, but our food must be donated!

No donation, absolutely no donation!

Nobles from various parts of Central and South Africa collectively protested against the grain donation order, and local governments also took the opportunity to collect money. Naturally, this seemingly life-saving government order was eventually passed on to ordinary civilians. They were originally wealthy people, but now they are said by the government, All donations have become donations on a per capita basis. In May, there are no recipients except There are really big households, and a few families have a lot of food reserves. At this time, the common people choose to dig up grass roots and tree bark and mix it with rice bran to make a living. They just hope that they can tide over the difficulties until July. Who knows that under the food donation order, Ten out of ten companies went bankrupt. It was originally intended to curb the refugees, but who knew that the number of refugees would not decrease but increase?

Regarding all this, the Zhongbia court also turned a blind eye and pretended not to see it. At the court meeting, Prime Minister Yu Fenlong still kept saying that "when a holy king governs the world, all difficulties will be solved." The ministers did not even mention the refugees. It seemed that everything was peaceful outside and everyone was living and working in peace and contentment.

A nephew of Yu Fenglong in the inner cabinet has just been promoted to undersecretary of the interior. He was full of blood and wanted to make a difference, so he stood up proudly. As soon as he mentioned the word "refugee" in his mouth, the ministers stared back with their eyes, and the emperor was also a little impatient. He raised his hand and only said, "If nothing happens, we'll be gone."

The junior official was so stunned that he could not move forward and could not retreat.

That night, Prime Minister Yu Fenglong called him over and gave him a severe scolding. Why are you so blind? Do you really think you are the only sensible person in the whole court? The court had already concluded what was going to happen when tens of millions of refugees returned to the South. They could not be saved, and there was no way to save them. Linhang, which had the most financial resources, was already in a state of semi-ruins. It was impossible to collect money this year. Liucheng Port , the Southwest Long family ordered a harvest before leaving, and the current tax they can turn over is less than 100,000, which is not even a drop in the bucket. Other southern provinces, In order to welcome the emperor's return to the south, we collected it once in April, which barely supported the emperor's appearance. Now the treasury of the entire Central Asian court is empty. Not to mention saving these tens of millions of refugees, I am afraid that even the local government officials Even the operating funds promised cannot be allocated. Since the court cannot solve the problem, the regional government has nothing to say about finding a solution on its own.

Aren't they just refugees? What a big deal. Throughout the dynasties, there were no refugees in that dynasty.

As long as they don't stay in one place and make trouble, in fact, they can't stay without food. What do you think the court's order to donate food means? In fact, it is like this. Food from all places along the way is collected, and the refugees I can't stop, I can only go all the way south. No matter what it is, always go south. , there are as many wastelands as the Hundred Thousand Mountains in the south. In the past, no one was willing to cultivate them even if they were encouraged. Now it is the best resettlement place. The refugees are rushing down like a flood. The mountain people cannot resist and can only retreat. The court If we can gain more land in several provinces, we can conservatively estimate that half of the mountainous areas in the south will be available.

In this way, the court can not only solve the problem of refugees, but also benefit from it. Your Majesty can also easily solve the troubles in the south that have plagued successive monarchs for more than a hundred years. Losing land in the north is a national shame, and there is a solution in the south. The land is open to the frontier. His Majesty the Emperor is still waiting for these refugees to occupy more places. It would be better for you to dare to stand up at this time. If it weren't for the fact that you are my Yu family, you wouldn't be able to attend today's meeting. May I come back? Do you know?