Munitions Empire

Chapter 1050: Xiong Biao was at a loss, not knowing what to do with the 972.

The King of Chu, Xiong Biao, has been very tense lately. He neither hopes for Qin Country to win the war against Shu Country, nor dares to pray for Shu Country’s victory… It’s a rather contradictory state that has left him barely able to sleep well for even a night.

There’s no helping it. The Great Tang Empire has taken a fancy to Chu Country’s Nanshan Port, hoping to swap some territories of Shu Country for this largest port city of Chu Country.

Listen, listen! Is that even reasonable? Exchanging Chu Country’s land with a third-party country’s territory, and the Tang Empire wouldn’t have to pay anything at all.

Chu Country itself doesn’t want to make the exchange, after all, Nanshan Port is the largest port of Chu Country, and it even has a pipeline that connects directly to the oil production region. Such an important port, Chu Country is not willing to give up easily. Indeed, this is one of the richest regions in Chu Country; they are reluctant to trade it away.

But since the Tang Empire wants it, Chu Country has to seriously consider the Tang Empire’s attitude. If they don’t agree to the other party’s demands, would it be likely to incur the Tang Empire’s retaliation?

And King Xiong Biao of Chu Country is very clear that the Tang Empire will get what it wants by all means. If Chu Country is unwilling, the Tang Empire might just take matters into its own hands.

Chu Country is a small and weak nation, and its institutions are almost thoroughly penetrated by the Great Tang Empire, to the point of becoming a sieve. Even the heir to the throne is held in Chang’an as a hostage, and the lifeline of the nation’s economy is in the hands of the Tang Empire.

In such a situation, what does Chu Country have to resist the Tang Empire with? If the Tang Empire uses the same tactics on Chu Country as it did with the Dahua Empire, the price Chu Country will have to pay could be truly too great.

Who doesn’t know that the Great Tang Empire supported Prince Zhao Yu within the Dahua Empire, which ultimately led to the outbreak of a civil war within Dahua. If others are not aware of this, wouldn’t Chu Country be?

So, upon hearing that the Great Tang Empire has set its sights on Nanshan Port, the King of Chu, Xiong Biao, knew that Nanshan Port was a lost cause.

Since it can’t be defended, the only thing to do is to exchange for the greatest benefit: The Tang Empire promised to swap part of Shu Country’s northern territory with Chu Country, at least on the aspect of land area Chu Country could obtain a bit more.

Xiong Biao agreed to the Tang Empire’s demands, then prayed in his heart that Qin Country would not overcome Shu Country, so the land to be swapped for Nanshan Port would not end up in the hands of the Tang Empire.

But upon further thought, if the Tang Empire has set its eyes on Nanshan Port, would it be a problem whether there is land from Shu Country to swap or not?

If Qin Country can’t acquire Shu Country’s territory, and the Tang Empire loses the bargaining chip of land exchange, might they become enraged and directly demand Nanshan Port?

If that were to really happen, wouldn’t Chu Country end up not getting any of Shu Country’s land?

Therefore, these days he has started fantasizing that Qin Country might be victorious, so at least he has a chance to obtain some of Shu Country’s territory, to make up for the loss of Nanshan Port.

In fact, the emissary sent by Shu Country to seek assistance from Chu Country arrived several days ago but has not been able to meet the King of Chu. So, he can roughly guess the intentions of Chu Country.

It’s estimated that Qin Country has already persuaded the King of Chu to remain neutral in the conflict between Qin and Shu. This is not good news for Shu Country, because the passage through Chu Country is necessary for Shu Country’s import of goods from Tang Country.

Like Chu Country, the Speaker of Shu Country, Liu Jing, is also very anxious these days. Shu Country is not able to get enough supplies from Chu Country and Tang Country, so it is not as strong as it appears.

Qin Country is worried that Shu Country might obtain enough resources, but Shu Country cannot get enough support due to the indecisiveness of Chu Country.

Both countries feel very vulnerable, and the warfare between the two has caused great suffering on both sides. Qin Country lost over 400 aircraft, and the situation in Shu Country isn’t much better, with a loss of more than 370 aircraft.

Pilot replacements are difficult, and the follow-up troop reinforcements can’t keep up. Shu Country has suffered a higher loss compared to Qin Country because their ground troops indeed have weaker combat capabilities.

In the two months since the war began, they have lost nearly 200,000 people. The ground troops of Qin Country are simply too formidable, leaving the ground troops of Shu Country unable to lift their heads.

There is indeed a huge gap in combat power between the two sides. In some regions, Qin Country has performed flanking movements and even surrounded more than 50,000 Shu Country military personnel, forcing them to surrender.

If it hadn’t been for the establishment of a new defense line along Huai Mountain, Shu Country might have already collapsed. A country that was inherently not good at warfare had been forced to hastily expand its military by one million troops.

But these troops hadn’t received much training, so you can imagine their combat effectiveness. Relying on these recently conscripted troops was probably even less reliable than counting on the mercenaries that the Orc Empire might lend to Shu Country.

That’s right, due to the outbreak of war, the trade of orc slaves exported from Shu Country to the Great Tang Empire seemed to have been affected, and these slaves weren’t easily transported to Tang Country anymore; they could only stay within Shu Country.

However, the Orc Empire didn’t care about that; they were willing to export some slaves, so many orc slaves were willing to stay in Shu Country, even willing to take up arms and fight for Shu Country for a price.

These orcs’ combat effectiveness was definitely more reliable than Shu Country’s own second-line troops. Therefore, there were voices within Shu Country advocating for the Orc Empire to send troops to help solve the troubles with Qin Country.

But the upper echelons of Shu Country were no fools; they were afraid that after the war, the orc slaves would become an uncontrollable force and a serious internal threat.

Their concerns were certainly not unfounded. The Beastmen’s combat abilities were inherently strong, and if these guys were equipped with good firearms and artillery, they would not be easy to control.

If these orcs didn’t leave and still had weapons in their hands, it was quite possible that Shu Country would be swallowed up by the Orc Empire in an instant. Common people might not think so deeply, but how could Liu Jing, as the Speaker, not consider the long-term implications?

What Shu Country could do now was to placate and defend against the Orc Empire, while communicating with Chu Country on the other hand, and then go all out to confront Qin Country.

Despite being on the back foot in the battlefield, the fact that Qin Country’s reinforcements were insufficient was undeniable. As long as Shu Country could persist and then have proper talks with the Great Tang Empire, there should ultimately be a solution.

Indeed, Liu Jing believed that the key to solving the problem lay with the Great Tang Empire. As long as the Great Tang Empire clearly demonstrated support for Shu Country, then Qin Country wouldn’t have the slightest chance.

It had to be said that Liu Jing’s vision was quite accurate. However, to satisfy the Great Tang Empire’s demands, Shu Country would have to pay a certain price.

Based on Qin Country’s offensive, this price seemed likely to be considerable. In this regard, Liu Jing was rather unwilling to hand over benefits to the Great Tang Empire.

This was the intuition of a leader, a survival instinct of prey: In Liu Jing’s view, compromising with the Great Tang Empire was even less desirable than seeking peace with Qin Country.

Because the appetite of the Great Tang Empire was not something easily satiated. Rather than feeding the Great Tang Empire and raising an unstoppable behemoth, it would be better to give benefits to Qin Country and have Qin Country bear the brunt at crucial moments to counter the immense pressure from the Great Tang Empire.

Of course, it’s fine for a politician like Liu Jing to think this way, but the citizens and merchants of Shu Country certainly didn’t think the same.

For these people, they would rather defect to the Great Tang Empire, which could bring them benefits, than have dealings with the impoverished people of Qin Country.

This mindset was similar to that of the European Union before Tang Mo’s time. They would rather be monitored and manipulated by the Lighthouse Country, even to their own detriment, than believe that Maoxiong, who was poor yet powerful, was no longer a threat.

In short, being decimated by the schemes of the Lighthouse was an internal contradiction that the Anglo people could reconcile, but even if the Slavic people seemed harmless, they were necessarily harboring some unspeakable plots…

As for the rabbit… In the eyes of these old Europeans, it always seemed to be a case of “they are not of our kind, and their hearts must be different,” filled with distrust.

So whether the leaders of Shu Country had political foresight became completely irrelevant because they were no longer able to structure and forge international relations according to their own ideas.

International relations had been thoroughly shattered by the invisible colossal hand extended by the Great Tang Empire. Now, what was left for Shu Country was only war!

Even war was no longer something Shu Country could control. Whether it would be defeat or victory, a draw or extinction, all depended on the intentions of the Great Tang Empire.

At this moment, Liu Jing felt shame and was full of sorrow. If he had a choice, he really didn’t want to accept an ending where his fate was arranged by others.

Because, truly, this was an extremely distressing, distressingly unbearable thing!