Munitions Empire

The rainfall in the south had indeed diminished substantially, and Chu Country, too, was greeted with the long-absent clear skies. However, for Chu Country, this was hardly good news.

On the very day the weather cleared, the bombers from Tang Country appeared in Chu Country's skies. The Tang pilots, who held deep-seated enmity, did not hesitate to drop their bombs on several major cities in the northern part of Chu Country.

The civilians of Chu Country could be said to have seen such foes for the first time: flocks of bombers, darkening the sky as they flew en masse over the cities, before bombs began dropping like raindrops from above their heads.

Carpet bombing was brutally relentless upon a city; the bomb blasts caused rows and rows of the flimsily constructed houses to collapse.

Buildings already rendered as dilapidated as shanties by the rain were effortlessly knocked down by the bombs, and after the explosions, the thunderous collapse of buildings that failed to withstand could still be heard intermittently.

These cities were completely paralyzed; their almost non-existent civil systems collapsed utterly, and all civilians of Chu Country began to despair, starting to despise those high-ranking Chu officials who had pressed them into war, for they believed that Tang Country was invincible.

Indeed, their thinking wasn't wrong, for Tang Country truly was invincible to Chu Country. The only thing in Chu Country that could slightly intimidate Tang Country were the southern mountains, continuously stretching across the land.

And those popular rumors about Tang Country had likewise influenced the thoughts of these Chu civilians: consistently secretive propaganda touting Tang Country's power and its civilians' happiness never ceased and had even intensified lately.

Originally, these large cities had just managed to break free from the disaster of the floods, barely catching their breath, when massive explosions once again shattered the peace of their lives.

Not until this point did the nobility and high-ranking officials of Chu Country remember—seemingly— that they were still in a state of war with Tang Country.

Suddenly, nobles fleeing southward jammed the muddy roads, crowding together with the poorly-clothed and hungry refugees, throwing everything into complete chaos.

Just as everyone in Chu Country began to worry about the conditions on the front lines, turmoil erupted within their own borders.

Having starved for too long, the refugees finally could no longer bear the burden and chose the most drastic way to vent their frustration.

The incident began when some of the south-fleeing Chu nobility encountered a group of refugees who hadn't eaten for three days due to the ravages of the flood.

These scantily clothed refugees could no longer hold out and make it to the next city to beg and try their luck. With no other options left, they stopped the convoy of nobles, hoping the latter would spare some food for them.

The nobles of Chu Country, accompanied by their families and Guards, of course were unwilling; they saw the demanding populace as nothing more than highway robbers and so they ordered their Guards to clear the way and disperse the refugees to let their massive convoy proceed.

But as Guards and refugees scuffled, some refugees tried to grab weapons from the Guards. Left with no choice, the Guards began to retaliate and opened fire, killing many people.

The remaining crowd immediately became unrestful, and the cornered individuals erupted with a fighting strength never seen under normal conditions.

These people charged without regard to their own lives, attacking the defense line of the noble convoy, and ultimately, at a terrible cost, achieved a reversal: they broke through the line, killed the Guards, and plundered the entire convoy.

The situation spiraled out of control, and the refugees, losing all reason, morphed into equally violent criminals: they didn't just steal the food; they also killed nearly everyone in the convoy.

The women of the noble families were all raped, and the children cruelly murdered. The vengeful refugees then scattered, carrying away with them everything they could.

The plundered noble, with a few Guards, managed to escape alone, and then he brought the Chu Country Military to conduct what he called vengeance.

A massacre on a larger scale began, with every refugee on the road being inexplicably killed. Bodies piled up along the roadside, and alongside the recently subsided floodwaters, a large-scale epidemic quickly broke out.

As the epidemic raged and refugees were left homeless, the officials indiscriminately slaughtered them, leading to an increase in resistance.

It might sound complex, but when this series of chain reactions unfolded over a few days, Chu Country erupted into a massive "uprising."

Overnight, dozens of forces were rallied; organized refugees in Chu Country killed the corrupt officials, slaughtered the tainted bureaucrats, attacked the rich landlords, and distributed food, throwing more than half of the country into turmoil.

Don't for a moment think that this was just a simple case of the commoners fighting the nobility, nor should you assume that the spy department of the Great Tang Kingdom is incompetent.

If Chu Country had their own Chu Yangren, then Tang Country naturally also had their own "Tang National Security Committee."

If given the chance, these agents who had long lurked within Chu Country's borders were far more adept than those Chu Yangren who only knew how to perform suicide attacks.

They fully utilized their advantages, employing the most advanced communication equipment to contact Tang headquarters and immediately turned a civil disturbance into a large-scale peasant uprising.

Lacking enough weapons? Tang's small troops took advantage of the chaos to infiltrate and deliver them! Airdrop them from planes! Even bribe part of the Chu military to buy some!

Sometimes, some of the infiltrated Chu military units would intentionally lose battles, abandoning their weapons to the organized "Welcoming Tang Army," or simply surrender and join the rebels.

These Welcoming Tang Armies were actually organized by Tang's intelligence department, with their slogan being to welcome the Tang Army for a better life!

Such matters hardly needed propagating; the better life of the Tang people had not been a secret in Chu Country for years. Everyone shared the same black hair and eyes, was hardworking and kind-hearted; why should they suffer in Chu and go hungry?

Why not join Tang, become Tang people, work hard like them, earn money to buy more food, and improve their living conditions?

Moreover, taking advantage of clear skies, the Tang Air Force would often scatter leaflets, proclaiming they would take in civilians without food and were willing to coexist peacefully with Chu people who defected. Suddenly, many coerced rebel armies claimed they were Welcoming Tang Armies, embracing the slogan to welcome the Tang Army, become Tang people, eat rice and flour, wear new clothes, and live better lives.

Soon, the unorganized civil unrest transformed into organized resistance. Coupled with Chu's perennially poor civil affairs, the Northern Region of Chu instantly slipped out of control.

The Chu leadership was thrown into chaos; they never imagined the day would come when they'd be crushed by a neighboring state's system and have to face civilian uprisings.

In their panic, Chu's king ordered the military to suppress these resisting civilians even more brutally, while in a state of insanity, he also ordered the execution of the nobleman who had caused trouble by retaliating against the rioters.

This nobleman, his eyes already red with killing, had some capability, and upon learning of the Chu king's order to eliminate him, he immediately raised his own banner of revolt, pulling some border forces with him to create a three-way stand-off with the rebels and Chu Country.

The three forces battled each other in the Northern Region of Chu, while the border defense was virtually nonexistent.

Then, the Northern Region of Chu became even more chaotic. The Tang Army, which was wrapping up its flood disaster relief work, immediately changed its plans. Commander Strauss personally led two divisions of troops to swiftly move south, advancing along the plains.

As Strauss marched south, he immediately received a response from the Chu refugees. Countless civilians came out joyously with food and drink to welcome the royal troops; in no time, the city flags were changed to the Great King's Banner, and the Great Tang conquered five cities within three days.

Half of the Northern Plains changed hands in an instant, with some border area's tens of thousands of Chu troops surrendering without firing a shot and immediately raising the Dragon Banner of Tang.

The forces deployed by Tang weren't actually numerous, but the further south they pressed, the more they grew: by the time Strauss entered the heartland of the Northern Plains of Chu, he had nearly a hundred thousand troops.

Then, one of Dorne's renowned twins, a new star of the Great Tang Kingdom, Strauss, with his twenty thousand elite troops, launched a surprise attack on the revolting Chu nobleman, driving straight in for over 120 kilometers and capturing him alive.

This Chu nobleman, who had a terribly bad reputation among the rioters, with many wishing to cannibalize his flesh, was beheaded by Strauss and had his head displayed on the walls of Chu's largest city in the North.

As a result, the refugees' support for the Tang Army reached its peak. Wherever the Tang Army went, they established control by proclamation, and Strauss managed to pacify the entire Northern Region of Chu while Great Tang forces were still resisting on the outskirts of Xicong.

The situation happened so suddenly that even Chu Country couldn't understand how it all came about.

Many people only realized afterwards that behind all these upheavals, there loomed the shadow of Tang's security department causing mischief.

Chu Country's use of Chu Yangren to throw two bombs into Tang seemed ineffective, but Tang's use of spies in Chu led to the loss of a quarter of Chu Country!

The gap between both countries' intelligence agencies was evident at a glance, causing the spies from other countries preparing to cause trouble within Tang to become much more cautious.

Chu's disastrous defeat made other countries finally realize something: the intelligence department of Tang, once powerful and omnipresent, had vanished in recent years... where had it gone... what had it done.

Strauss's series of victories in the Northern Region of Chu eliminated the threat from Chu to the recently annexed southern oil fields of Great Tang.

This campaign secured enough strategic space for the already Tang-owned southern oil fields, allowing Great Tang to now safely extract oil there.

Five days later, the Chu king announced a decree to relocate the capital, moving from the affluent area by the edge of the Northern Plains and mountains to a small city amidst the poorer southern mountains and harsh landscape.

While Chu announced the relocation of its capital, the battle within the encirclement of Xicong surprisingly continued.

The fame of Strauss, along with Chu's relocation of the capital, once again struck awe across the land.