Chaos of the Three Kingdoms Summons

Chapter 2625 The Demise of the Qinghan Navy, Progress in the Southeast Advance

Luoyang.

Within the palace.

On a sand table, Li Xiang removed all the tricolor flags representing Qin, Liu, and Yuan, replacing them with small flags representing the Great Jin Dynasty, and had the eunuchs beside him plant them on the sand table one by one.

The war in the north, which began in the spring, actually lasted only eight months. However, within those eight months, the forces of Liu Bei, Yuan Tan, and Qin Zheng were all wiped out.

This also includes the Qinghan Navy, which Qi Jiguang had not yet dealt with when he left.

With Qingbei, Qingnan, and Youzhou all lost, Liu Rengui and Liu Zheng could find no place to replenish their supplies.

Without access to land for supplies, a navy is nothing more than a rootless duckweed.

Moreover, Liu Rengui would eventually stop at Qingnan Ferry, intending to rely on the ferry for defense.

Although he managed to save the limited supplies at the ferry crossing, it also meant that his navy was completely surrounded while he was trapped there.

During Xue Rengui's attack on Youzhou, Han Shizhong launched a pincer attack by land and water, and finally wiped out the last of Qinghan's troops.

Among the Qinghai-Hanzhong naval forces, there were those who died in battle, such as Liu Rengui, Liu Zheng, Gan Ning, and Deng Xia.

There were also those who surrendered, such as Liu Menglong and Zhu Guobao.

Of course, there were also prisoners like Bei Chen, Liao Li, and Zang Ba.

Although Zang Ba was not a general of the Qing-Han Navy, after Liu Bei's death, many surviving Qing-Han generals gathered with the Qing-Han Navy, and he was one of them.

However, he still could not escape the fate of being captured.

Seeing that the sand table was almost entirely covered with the flags of the Han Dynasty, and that even in Southeast Asia, half of the region was now marked by the Han flag, Li Xiang nodded in satisfaction.

However, the flags in the northwest and northeast, so different from those of the Han Dynasty, planted on the sand table were somewhat jarring to Li Xiang.

Currently, half of Youzhou is still in the hands of the Li Tang dynasty, while Xizhou and half of Liangzhou are in the hands of the Yuan Mongols. Even though the warlords of the Central Plains have been completely wiped out, without taking back these territories, the Great Jin dynasty cannot be considered to have completely achieved unification.

"Jinglue, this battle is ending much faster than expected!"

"We should still have a lot of food left over from the provisions we prepared in advance!"

Li Xiang originally thought it would take a year and a half to completely defeat the remaining three teams.

However, it only took half the planned time.

Therefore, they actually had a large portion of their provisions remaining for this battle.

The war in the north went very smoothly overall.

After all, the strength of the three northern families is far from recovered; in fact, two of them are in a state of crippling weakness.

Therefore, their defenses were riddled with holes due to the Jin army's numerical superiority. After Ji Province was captured, the remaining two forces were left in a state of disarray, unable to defend themselves.

Conversely, Southeast Asia, while initially progressing smoothly, encountered obstacles later on after the Kushan Empire and remnants of Zhu Yuanzhang's faction joined the campaign. In contrast, the three northern provinces, once conquered and with a simple consolidation of popular support, could be quickly established as a unified entity.

To put it bluntly, it was just a matter of a new dynasty over the common people, and the vast majority of them didn't really react much.

However, in Southeast Asia, the Kushan Empire and the remnants of Zhu Yuanzhang's forces joined the fight, stabilizing the battle lines of Bai Qi and Chang Yuchun, one in the south and the other in the north.

After that, there were no problems with the territories that Chang Yuchun conquered. The regions he conquered were some of the most underdeveloped areas in Southeast Asia.

However, problems began to arise in the areas that Bai Qi conquered, which were behind his front lines.

Civilians from some Southeast Asian countries in the rear, including women and children, launched surprise attacks on the Jin army's rear-guard troops.

Even if the children were from an enemy country, how much defense could the Jin soldiers have? It was precisely because of this that many isolated Jin soldiers fell victim to the trap.

Meanwhile, these Southeast Asian people dug numerous tunnels and traps throughout the region, causing immense suffering to the Jin army as they advanced.

Although this situation only affected a small portion of Southeast Asia, it still caused considerable trouble for Bai Qi's Jin army. Furthermore, several assassination attempts were plotted against the crown prince accompanying the army in Southeast Asia.

In fact, although Bai Qi was the actual commander of this army, the Crown Prince was nominally the supreme commander.

However, unlike Bai Qi, the Crown Prince, as the commander-in-chief, did not lead the army to advance and conquer various regions in Southeast Asia. Instead, he stayed behind to stabilize the rear.

As the crown prince, Bai Qi not only left behind a large number of guards to protect him, but Li Xiang also secretly arranged for a large number of experts. Therefore, although he was assassinated several times, he was able to escape unscathed.

However, the repeated assassination attempts on the crown prince still caused a stir among the high command of the Jin army. Bai Qi executed the entire family of those involved in the assassinations. Similarly, those who instigated unrest were also executed along with their entire families.

The high command of the Jin army did not hesitate to use ruthless methods to suppress the unrest in those Southeast Asian regions in the rear.

However, those regions that were originally peaceful became even more secure after witnessing the Jin army's ruthless methods. And those regions that were already turbulent were not deterred by these ruthless tactics; instead, they became even more rampant.

It's fair to say that Southeast Asia is a region utterly polarized. Some are overly obedient, while others are incredibly stubborn.

Although the Jin army was ruthless, it could not completely wipe out all the Southeast Asian people in these regions.

It's not that they're afraid to kill, but that they can't.

After all, this battle is not over yet!

If they kill everyone, where will they get food from? How can they completely rely on transporting food from the rear?

This supply route is too long and can only serve as a supplement to the two-pronged approach.

The best approach is to obtain food from the enemy as much as possible.

After all, even now, the arable area in that region isn't that large, but its climate and environment are so favorable that it's practically a gift from God.

As long as the civilians are not all killed, and there are still people who can farm, a large amount of military rations can be obtained.

After all, even if people in some parts of Southeast Asia are causing trouble, they still have to grow food. Otherwise, what will they eat?
The armies in Southeast Asia didn't cause the Jin army as much trouble; it was the ordinary people in the rear who slowed down their advance.