Munitions Empire

However, the process would be somewhat prolonged, Li Jun’s estimate of 5 to 7 days was really just a reflection of his "hope."

On one hand, he was hoping his troops could hold out a bit longer, while on the other, he anticipated that the Tang Army, wary of casualties, or out of caution, might slow their push.

Upon hearing Li Jun’s explanation, Zheng Tong’s fragile and sensitive expression began to twitch again. He suddenly grabbed the cup in front of him and smashed it to the ground.

Li Jun remained silent, while Zhang Ming who had just been immersed in the terror of the city’s breach was startled by the sudden smashing sound of the cup breaking.

He looked at Zheng Tong, who had become somewhat incoherent over the past two days, finding the King struggling to articulate his thoughts.

Indeed, even before the battle of Tongcheng erupted, he had considered the possibility of ceding all the land east of Tongcheng to the Great Tang Group in exchange for peace.

But at that time, Zheng Tong would never have consented to ceding half of Zheng Country for a temporary reprieve. Back then, Zheng Tong’s mind was filled with thoughts of a counter-attack, of recapturing lost territory!

Zheng Tong could tolerate the loss of an overseas island, or even all the islands, but he could never accept the easy loss of mainland territory.

Of course, he might have tolerated a little, but east of Tongcheng was about half of Zheng Country!

Now, at this moment, Zhang Ming had come to see that if he were the decision-makers of Great Tang, he too would not have ceased hostilities at the battle of Tongcheng.

Even if Zheng Country were willing to offer fealty and tribute, willing to cede half of the nation, Great Tang would not likely call off their troops and talk peace. For Great Tang had readied themselves to completely swallow Zheng Country, why would they settle for only half a meal when the meat was already in their mouth?

Now, at this instant, Zheng Country was left with only King City, and Great Tang was even less likely to allow Zheng Country to dictate any terms anymore.

Therefore, although Zhang Ming opened his mouth, he was unable to voice the suggestion to approach Great Tang for negotiations.

However, he was somewhat unwilling to accept that things were suddenly... over.

Zhang Ming glanced at Li Jun beside him and after the crazed Zheng Tong had smashed all the cups on the table and stormed out of the room, whispered, "Are we truly defenseless? Can’t our tens of thousands of troops..."

Li Jun glanced at Zhang Ming and shook his head, "If there were any other way, would I not try it? At this point, any action would merely be the thrashes of the dying."

"Ah..." Zhang Ming sighed.

Almost simultaneously, Li Jun also sighed, "Ah..."

Can’t we... hold out for a few more days?" Zhang Ming asked again, still unwilling to let go, like a lovelorn woman not ready to part ways.

"I... will try... We’ll hold out for as many days as we can," Li Jun said, feeling somewhat uplifted upon hearing his long-time adversary speak in such a tone, as if gaining a bit more strength.

Unfortunately, reality proved that Li Jun had misjudged both the fighting power of his troops and the determination of the enemy forces.

On a quiet night, some were terror-stricken and others sleepless, the silence unbroken by cannon or gunfire, as if everyone was waiting for dawn the next day.

Sure enough, as soon as the sun rose the next day, the gunshots of the Tang Troops echoed once more. This time, artillery from the Tang Army was positioned in all directions around King City, the number of cannons seemed to have doubled from the day before!

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Dozens of sections of the city walls were bombarded into collapse, followed by the systemic surrender of the Zheng Army... Previously, Li Jun had fantasized about his troops withdrawing into the city to engage in street battles with the Tang Army.

But in reality, by noon the next day, approximately 5,000 Zheng troops deployed on and around the city walls had surrendered, and the situation was completely out of his control. ⱤÃΝỗᛒƐş

Everything had deviated from the original plan. Li Jun took a group on a round of inspection and discovered that almost all the troops had descended into chaos.

Some units were retreating into the city, but due to the chaos, a thousand men upon retreat would be considered fortunate to still number 300.

The soldiers were seizing the chaos to flee, finding a corner to shed their uniforms, and that was about as good as escaping from purgatory.

Such troops were still relatively orderly. In worse cases, several hundred men would simply raise a white flag, not even entering the city, and instead heading directly to the rear of the Tang Group’s forces to eat steaming hot meals.

By the afternoon, the 1st Infantry Division of Great Tang had already breached the city and took control of the southeast corner, approximately a quarter of the city area.

After dinner, as dusk fell, Tagg received the day’s battle report: Tang Army had accepted the surrender of 11,000 Zheng soldiers and had killed over 700 who resisted.

Just by these cold figures, Tagg knew that the Zheng Army had completely collapsed. The day before, Zheng Army had suffered 3,000 casualties and 9,000 surrenders after a day of fierce fighting. These proportions indicated that Zheng Army was still resisting in an organized fashion, but the next day’s data showed that they had shattered.

The only regret he felt was that it was already late in the day, and even if his troops were capable, it was not possible to strike while the iron was hot and launch an attack at night.

He could only wait for daylight to continue the assault on Zheng Country’s King City—no matter how anxious he was, he was not willing to gamble with the precious lives of his soldiers.

Tagg was unaware that at this moment, Zheng Country’s King City had plunged into utter chaos. For the upper echelons of Zheng Country, this night was destined to be tumultuous.

King Zheng Tong had gone mad!

The King of Zheng Country, accompanied by his followers, found Li Jun amidst the disorderly soldiers and, without asking questions, fired a shot at him.

Naturally, Li Jun had his own loyal troops by his side, and the sound of gunfire immediately sparked a fierce firefight between the two sides. While the Zheng Army wasn’t particularly effective against enemy forces, they were quite powerful when fighting amongst themselves.

At that time, the Tang Army stationed within the city was making the last of the daylight useful by receiving the civilians seeking refuge and the surrendering defeated soldiers, when suddenly the sound of gunfire erupted in the distance!

Before the Tang Army could understand what was happening, the internal struggle within the Zheng Army had already been decided!

King Zheng Tong and his adherents were shot dead on the spot by Li Jun’s personal guards, and then a lightly wounded Li Jun led his troops straight to Zheng Tong’s palace without hesitation.

The chaotic forces directly overpowered the palace guards, and a brutal melee ensued. Li Jun, with bloodlust in his eyes, ultimately broke into the palace and slaughtered Zheng Tong’s entire family.

Having gone equally insane, Li Jun, after killing 33 of King Zheng Tong’s consorts in one breath and slaughtering all his sons and daughters, numbering some seventeen or eighteen, then remembered Zhang Ming.

Therefore, he took his troops and searched for Zhang Ming throughout the night! As it happened, Zhang Ming, terrified by the upheaval in the city, fled with his family under cover of darkness, abandoning his home, so Li Jun spent the entire night searching in vain for Zhang Ming and his family.

Indeed, it was impossible for him to find them—having reached a dead end, Zhang Ming surrendered to the Great Tang Group at dawn.

After a night of killing, Li Jun also remembered the besieging army outside the city. So he gathered the troops he could and sent a messenger, surrendering plainly to the Great Tang Group.

To make himself more valuable, the Zheng Country’s Great General even brought the corpse of King Zheng Tong with him. Everything happened so abruptly and so quickly that even Tagg was not prepared.

He truly had not expected that this campaign of annexing Zheng Country would end in such a farcical manner.

Li Jun, who had always strived to play the role of the loyal official, and the resentful Prime Minister Zhang Ming, thus met embarrassingly at the headquarters of the Great Tang Group.

Li Jun, still with bandages wrapped around his shoulder, and Zhang Ming, dressed as a commoner with his beard shaved off, for a moment didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

"Your five days, seven days... turned out to be just two?" Zhang Ming, still unaware that Zheng Tong was dead, looked derisively at the disheveled Li Jun and asked.

"I won’t argue with you; you’re lucky. If you hadn’t run fast enough, I would have killed you tonight too!" Li Jun snorted, somewhat regretting that he couldn’t personally slay this longtime rival in the end.

Zhang Ming, stunned, heard something in that word "also" and stared at Li Jun with wide eyes, "You! You dare commit regicide?"

"King Zheng Tong, without any question, found me and fired a shot!" Li Jun, eyes bloodshot as if he was a wild beast, pressed forward to Zhang Ming, "If not for my son taking the bullet, I would have been the one dead! My son died saving me; surely, it’s not excessive that I killed his whole family?"

Hearing Li Jun’s words, Zhang Ming staggered back until he reached a table, where he steadied himself by grabbing onto the edge, finally managing to stand.

He wanted to say something but found himself speechless—he believed everything Li Jun said, just from the look in his eyes...

So he dejectedly hung his head and sighed without speaking further.

That very night, Tagg sent a telegram to Dragon Island, informing Tang Mo that the war in Zheng Country was over.

The next morning, troops from the Great Tang Kingdom began to enter the city. With the Kingdom of Zheng vanquished, the few remaining segments of the city walls of King City were now fluttering with Dragon Banners.

There was hardly any resistance. Civilians of Zheng Country naturally accepted the rule of the Great Tang Kingdom, and just as naturally, they adopted their new identities as Tang People, as they had no fondness for Zheng Country.

While the world’s nations had yet to come to terms with the sudden emergence of the Great Tang Kingdom, they were now stunned by the news of the Great Tang Kingdom’s annexation of Zheng Country.

Now, a new dilemma presented itself before the leaders of the trade alliance: how to deal with their relationship with the Great Tang Kingdom!

Gifting territory and ports to nobility within one’s own country or leasing them to a consortium is one thing, but ceding them for free to a kingdom is quite another.

Previously, they could place their ports or territories in the hands of the Tang Group without sovereignty concerns. Now, these places were rich and mired in legal territorial disputes...

Who could resist giving them a second thought?

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Well, today we’ve finally returned to two chapters a day. Let Dragon Spirit rest a bit, and in a few days, we’ll start to repay the owed chapters... sigh... The number of missed updates keeps increasing, truly a heartbreaking tale for the readers.

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