772 Sharp Turn Down (1/2)

Chapter 772 – Sharp Turn Down

12th month, 5th day, Yunnan Province.

The 1st Guards Legion led by Huo Qubing had reached the frontlines and crossed the border, starting the first battle in the Battle of Yunnan.

In the next week, their progress through Dongchuan went unusually smoothly.

With the help of the cavalry forces, the Heavy Armored Mountain Barbarian Infantry Division acted as the main force. The 1st legion attacked strategic lands all the way, not facing any problems. City after city easily fell into the hands of Shanhai City.

The siege weapon making technology of Consonance City was produced on a large-scale by smiths and artisans in the city to rush out countless siege weapons.

The three forces all brought along large amounts of siege weapons to assist them in the battle.

Even so, the smoothness of the process exceeded their expectations. As it was too smooth, it made Huo Qubing wary; the enemy might be planning an ambush.

The only normal thing was probably the grain problem.

All the granaries in the cities that they had taken down were completely burnt and emptied out. What was worse was that even the grain in the houses of the civilians had been taken.

Such a situation was not limited to the main cities but also the affiliated cities.

Apart from food to survive, the houses of the people in Dongchuan Prefecture did not have any excess grain. Before the war, the Military Affairs Bureau had sent an order prohibiting them from taking food from the people.

Du Ruhui warned the generals, ”Even if we are hungry, we cannot snatch the food of the people. Whoever goes against this order will be severely punished.”

The goal of the Battle of Yunnan was to destroy the Yunnan City-State, not to destroy the local economy, people, and their sentiments. If their army really fooled around, it would be hard to make the people trust them again.

Anywhere the army passed, they were unable to find much grain and could only take it from the grain transporting forces.

During this week, with the help of the Flying Squad, the three intel organizations conducted a blanket-style search. Weirdly, they still could not find any traces of the enemy.

It was like the 200 thousand troops had not even appeared in Yunnan Province.

Without a doubt, the armies of Yanhuang Alliance had already moved away.

This time, the Alliance Army was like a layer of mist hanging over the skies of Yunnan, making this battle even more uncertain.

Under such circumstances, Huo Qubing did not dare to take the risk. The 1st legion did not dare to split up to increase their speed and just took down city by city.

Apart from that, Huo Qubing also focused on the protection of the grain supply, sending the two cavalry regiments from the 1st division to help monitor and protect them.

With their ability, even if they met the 200 thousand alliance troops, it would not be too bad if they were prepared.

Hence, his strategy was to be prepared for a sneak attack but not lose out on a good opportunity.

The 1st legion continued as planned and pretty much swept through the entire Dongchuan at a rate of two cities every three days.

As for the weird situation the right troops were facing, Baiqi ordered for the middle and left troops to slow down and maintain their strength.

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12th month, 15th day, Dongchuan Prefecture.

In just 10 days, the entire Dongchuan Prefecture basically fell under the hooves of the 1st Guards Legion, only left the city at the north was left - Yongren City.

This city was located at the intersection of Yunnan Province and the Shu Lands. If one walked 200 miles in, they would reach the famous city of iron in real life - Panzhihua.

Panzhihua's iron resources were 70% of that of the Shu Lands, one of the four largest iron regions in China. Its titanium source was also the largest in the world. It also had the third most vanadium in the world.

The Panzhihua region in the game was located within Swordsman City's territory.

The iron ore industry naturally became one of their pillar industries. However, due to the difficulties of transporting iron making it rather inconvenient and hard to sell, it was difficult to make profits.

There were no trains in the game, so one could not transport large batches of iron ore; especially across land, where transporting such resources posed even more of a problem.

Hence, Feng Qingyang could only sit on this treasure mountain but could not change it into actual gold. At most, he could rely on the shocking iron ore reserves to develop his military industry.

However, due to the lack of technologies and technical manuals, their military industry was barely surviving.

Hence, Feng Qingyang had one of the worst situations amongst all the members of Yanhuang Alliance. In the various huge battles, including wilderness matters, Swordsman City did not have a huge say.

As one of the heads of Yanhuang Alliance, Feng Qingyang was not as famous as Di Chen and Chun Shenjun. Even Xiong Ba and Zhan Lang were more famous than him.

Even Wandering Magic had been in the spotlight more often than him.

Hence, only then did he totally give up on running the territory and focus on martial arts; he wanted to work with the Shu Imperial Court to form a win-win situation.

...

This morning, Huo Qubing led his troops and arrived ten miles outside of Yongren City.