Alien Arms Empire.

Chapter 1815 1816 Important Chips

In the palace of Roslina, the Elf Emperor Yangmu I waved his hand irritably and asked some unimportant ministers to leave first, leaving only a few confidants to discuss how to deal with the Tang army next.

The loss of Matthes had undone his entire defensive plan, and now he had to think about whether or not to turn Joslena into the front line.

Subjectively, he was unwilling to surrender, but if he did not surrender, he had to choose a decent way out for himself.

Obviously, even if he gave up Roslaina, he, as the emperor, would not be able to organize an army in the south with half of the country to stop the Tang army from moving south.

Since the entire Yangmu Empire was unable to stop the Tang Army's attack with its solid defense line, it would be even more impossible to stop the Tang Army's tanks with the manpower and material resources of half of the Yangmu Empire, plus a hastily built defense line.

Therefore, from the very beginning, Yangmu I placed his hopes on the option of peace talks. Although the hope was slim, this option seemed more certain than fighting against the Tang army with force.

Moreover, even if the Tang army did not accept the peace talks, it would not have any impact on the current situation. It was just an attempt anyway, an unimportant one.

"Duke Robert still refuses to give in. The situation has deteriorated to this point. The other party will definitely not agree to anything we want." The prime minister spoke first with a defeated look on his face. He has been really worried about the peace talks recently.

Duke Leibert has been doing very well in the upper echelons of the Yangmu Empire recently. Many ministers have begun to flirt with this Duke, because everyone knows that this Duke has always had secret dealings with the Tang Empire.

Before, Duke Leibert seemed to be a little more cautious and acted relatively low-key. But recently, he was too lazy to pretend. He held banquets every day, and a large group of court officials would attend. The scene was very lively.

When the war just broke out, some ministers suggested arresting people like Robert who were collaborating with the enemy, and proposed confiscating their property to supplement military expenses.

However, as the war situation continued to change, such voices had disappeared. Even Emperor Yangmu I himself no longer had any intention of arresting Duke Leibert.

There was no way. Even if he gave the order, few people would be willing to carry it out. The people who were going to carry out the mission might release Leibert halfway and then report that Leibert had escaped.

Rather than making everyone embarrassed and losing face, it would be better to be more open-minded and forget about dealing with Duke Robert. This would seem to be good for everyone.

Several generals were still unwilling to give in and argued, "We still have bargaining chips in our hands! If we continue to resist, at least Slaina will become a ruin. This is their own city in the future. Don't they feel bad at all?"

In their view, getting a complete Roslina would be beneficial to the Tang Empire, and it was a bargaining chip in itself. If the entire city was reduced to ruins, the Tang Empire would need to invest a lot of manpower and material resources to build it, which would be a loss in itself.

"General... have you ever thought that perhaps those humans would be more willing to take over a ruined city?" The Prime Minister snorted bitterly and asked the generals.

He is not a general, and does not look at things entirely from a military perspective, so he considers things more comprehensively. From a national perspective, a complete Roslina is not necessarily what the Tang Empire wants.

"What do you mean by that?" After hearing the prime minister's words, several generals asked in confusion. According to their thinking, fighting a street battle in Roslina would not necessarily reduce the losses of the Tang Empire.

"What do you mean? They are humans, and we are elves. The death of tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of elves is nothing for humans to feel sad about?" The prime minister only gave one reason and then shut up.

"This..." But his reason alone left several generals speechless.

In fact, there are many reasons that the prime minister has not mentioned: If the Tang Kingdom really destroyed Roslina, it would be equivalent to destroying the spiritual totem of the elves, which means it would be easier to conquer the elves ideologically.

In addition, completely reducing Roslaine to ruins could also stimulate domestic demand. Rebuilding a city requires a large amount of means of production, and the Tang Empire happened to be one of those countries with more means of production than could be used up.

If you look at how the Lighthouse Country used the Marshall Plan to boost domestic demand after World War II and exchanged for everything it wanted, you will know that bombing Joslina is not an unacceptable option.

The irritated Yangmu I finally spoke at this time, but his words were full of regret: "Those greedy humans! Why didn't I see that they were even greedier than those insects in Xirik?"

If he had known that the Tang Dynasty Group would evolve into a powerful empire after leaving for the Western Continent and have ambitions to conquer the world, he would never have chosen the damned Tang Dynasty Group over Xirik.

Before this, Xirik had only interfered in the internal affairs of other countries openly or secretly, and occasionally usurped the throne and committed treason, but it did not fundamentally shake the ruling foundation of the imperial power of various countries.

But the Tang Empire is different. Whether it is a challenge to the old world order or a covetousness of the territories of other countries, it is worse than Xirik's behavior.

It's a pity... It's a pity that he realized it too late, and now it's too late to regret! The Tang Empire is no longer the weak Tang Group that he never took seriously before.

At that time, as long as he cheated, he could swallow up the Hot Wind Port that the Datang Group had painstakingly built and take the Datang Group's wealth for himself without even paying much.

Now the powerful Tang Empire is preparing to take back everything that belongs to it, and also wants to take interest. All this is no longer something the Yangmu Empire can bear.

The prime minister looked at Yang Mu Yi with a bitter look and reminded him, "Your Majesty, it's useless to say these things now. Let's think about how to solve the current crisis."

"Send the third group of envoys immediately with the greatest sincerity! No matter what, the Tang army must be stopped!" Yang Mu I also knew that complaining was the most useless thing, so he decisively gave the order.

He had sent out two groups of envoys before, and the Tang Empire did not reject them: they received the elves' envoys, and after listening to their conditions, they rejected the elves' request for peace. In fact, Yangmu I had made many concessions, and in his opinion, these concessions were enough to make people excited: he was willing to abdicate and become a duke, willing to offer the remaining territory, and only asked to keep a few cities as his fiefdom, retain the administrative power over these lands, and be able to collect taxes on these lands...

  These conditions don't seem to be excessive. After all, he is an emperor. Can you ask an emperor to surrender without even making some conditions?

But when he sent envoys to meet those arrogant and domineering officers of the Tang Empire, the other party rejected his conditions without even a second thought.

The conditions given by the other party were extremely harsh: only the title of duke was allowed to be retained, and no fiefdom was allowed... In the eyes of these generals of the Tang Empire, it was natural for the empire to unify the world, and of course it was impossible to allow a country within a country to emerge.

Just when Yang Mu I was giving the order to send out another group of envoys, the door of the hall was pushed open and an officer rushed in hurriedly.

He walked to the side of the prime minister and several generals, saluted Yangmu I, bowed his head and reported: "Your Majesty! Just received news... The army of the Tang Empire has advanced to a place about 40 kilometers away from Roslina."

"What?" "What did you say?" Almost at the same time, several ministers and Emperor Yang Mu I asked almost the same question.

When the Tang army occupied Mats before, the high-ranking elves present were already surprised. Now they heard that the Tang army did not stop in Mats temporarily, but continued to move southward and head straight for Roslina. Naturally, they would be in a panic for a while.

If the Tang army really stopped in Mats, then they could at least maintain the situation temporarily and urge the troops to build fortifications, pretending that they were determined to fight to the death in Roslina, in order to deter the Tang army and increase their bargaining chips.

But now they have no time to carry out these self-proclaimed clever operations. The Tang army is already very close and may appear in the suburbs of Roslina at any time.

"Your Majesty, the Tang army has appeared 40 kilometers away from the imperial capital... The garrison stationed there has been defeated, and the remaining troops have retreated to the north of the city..." The officer looked at the pairs of shocked eyes and had no choice but to repeat the story.

In fact, not many of the troops in the battalion guarding there escaped, and the so-called retreat was just a more decent way of saying it: in fact, only about 20 poor guys ran to the barracks near Joslene and reported the news of the arrival of the Tang army to the local garrison.

As for the rest of the people...it goes without saying that they were probably captured and are now enjoying food in the Tang army's prisoner-of-war camp.

"Your Majesty..." The prime minister looked at Yang Mu I, hoping to see something from the emperor's face. He needed the emperor to give him a hint so that it would be easier for him to carry out the next task.

Even if we have to fight, we must have the determination to fight. The troops need to be encouraged, the defense lines need to be reinforced quickly, and the edge of the city close to the enemy... the people should also be evacuated and prepared for street fighting.

But the elves haven't started all this yet, and even the troops in the south of the city don't know that the Tang army is approaching.

"Send the envoys out immediately! No matter what, request the Tang army to suspend their advance! Five days... no, three days is fine! The Tang army must be stopped! If they can complete the task, there will be a handsome reward!" Yang Mu I was in a panic, but he was still prepared to use his mouth to make the Tang army suspend its offensive.

"Also, the rest of you go back immediately, organize the troops and prepare for street fighting! This is our last bargaining chip and cannot be wasted easily!" Then he looked at the generals and continued to give orders.

Several generals immediately stood at attention and saluted, then turned around to execute the order. Yang Mu I then sat back on his chair helplessly, looking at the prime minister and sighing helplessly.

……

The rapid advance of the Tang army not only created tremendous pressure on the elves, but also brought a lot of trouble to the Tang army itself.

Xiao Yun, the air force commander of the Tang Empire, could almost understand the pain of Maye, the Sandezi air force general during World War II on Earth.

He had to make choices on some issues because the resources at hand were always in short supply: he needed a large number of front-line aircraft to complete tactical support missions, and he also needed a large number of long-range aircraft to complete strategic support missions.

There is no way, both sides are important, and both are too attractive in comparison: the advancement of front-line troops requires air cover, and strategic bombing can really reduce the enemy's production potential... He wants both types of aircraft, but the number of airports, aircraft and pilots seriously restricts his needs.

We can't deploy all the air force pilots in the Western Continent to the front line, right? It would be nice if we could do that.

Just like it is impossible to send all of the empire's most elite troops to the East Continent to fight, a large part of the army, navy and air force actually remain in the mainland and have not moved at all.

To put it bluntly, the Tang Empire has always been using half of its strength to fight its enemies, and its opponents cannot even withstand this half of its strength.

Xiao Yun has recently been trying to find ways to increase the number of frontline airports, which is not an easy task for a modern air force.

The supporting facilities of modern military airports are not so easy to complete. The aircraft equipped by the Tang army itself do not include field front-line fighter models that are not very dependent on front-line airports, so every airport needs to be renovated and upgraded, which greatly affects the advancement speed of the Tang Air Force.

Fortunately... the range of the Tang army's aircraft is amazing enough. The Yinglong fighter has a combat radius of more than 1000 kilometers, which is enough for them to perform most combat missions.

However, as the war progressed, Xiao Yun had to take more things into consideration. He finally transferred 10 White Swan 160 bombers from the rear, but these planes could not be put into combat immediately.

The field airports occupied on the front line are actually of very high specifications, but they are still unusable by the Tang army. The engineering troops are constantly upgrading these airports so that they can support the Tang army's combat aircraft.

Some less qualified airports have to be used as helicopter bases, and some are even abandoned directly to save resources.

Fortunately, the elves' capital, Roslina, has entered the combat radius of the Tang Air Force, which made Xiao Yun relax a little.