Alien Arms Empire.

Chapter 1866 1867 A Not-So-Graceful Surrender
"We have already decided to surrender, why are you still so aggressive?" Paul said this with a barely perceptible sense of fatigue and helplessness in his tone. He had just returned to this simple temporary negotiation room with heavy steps. Two hours ago, he led his officers across the battle lines of both sides and came to the actual control area of ​​the Tang Empire, where he met this Tang army officer in front of him.

He was a young officer with thick black hair and a pair of sharp black eyes like a hawk. He was dressed in a spotless military uniform of the Tang Empire. The rank of colonel prominently displayed on his epaulettes indicated his identity.

For Paul, the coalition general who once commanded a million troops, negotiating with a mere colonel was undoubtedly a great humiliation. However, reality was so cruel that he, who was once so arrogant, had now fallen to the point of bowing his head and asking for peace with his former enemy.

In fact, it was not that the Tang army deliberately neglected him, but the highest military commander of the Tang Empire in the vicinity, General Strauss, had bypassed Yucheng and continued to lead the army to advance to the southeast. General Ying An, who was about to take over the command here, was still in Bingjing City at this moment. The generals who stayed here to be responsible for the aftermath did not have much negotiation experience and could only choose the one with the highest position from the existing candidates to deal with this negotiation.

As for letting the Tang Empire Marshal Tiger, who was in Wolf City, set off for Jade City, let alone Paul, even Lions II probably wouldn't think he really had the face to do so.

Therefore, Paul could only suppress his dissatisfaction and negotiate with the young colonel in front of him about the fate of hundreds of thousands of coalition soldiers. The two chose a dilapidated building not far from the actual control line between the two sides for the negotiation. The building had obviously been hit by heavy artillery fire. The walls were covered with dense bullet holes, and the roof had several large holes. The sunlight shone through the holes, casting patches of light and shadows on the ground.

In order to cover up these shocking bullet holes, a dragon flag of the Tang Empire was hastily hung on the only wall in the room. The dragon flag fluttered gently in the breeze, as if silently declaring the ownership of this land.

As the supreme commander of the coalition forces, Paul naturally could not leave too far from the control area of ​​his troops, and the Tang Empire seemed to have no intention of making things difficult for him on this matter, so the two sides agreed to hold the negotiations in this dilapidated building not too far from the control line of both sides.

During this meeting, the Tang Empire did not show due courtesy, and did not even prepare any food or drinks. The two sides simply began a "surrender negotiation" that had been discussed long ago at both ends of a tattered table.

In fact, before Paul came here, he had sent people to communicate with the headquarters of the Tang Empire several times. The conditions had been negotiated repeatedly, and everyone knew that there would be a result today.

"Because you want to waste our precious time by surrendering. Mr. General, I hope you don't treat me as a child. I know exactly what you are thinking now." Colonel Tang Jun, who was sitting across the table, certainly did not negotiate based on his own intuition. He was just a representative and the executor of this negotiation.

Paul seemed a little embarrassed and explained his helplessness: "You know, I have no way to restrain the Lions troops in Yucheng. All I can do is give the order to surrender."

What he said was indeed true, because the defense line of the Lions garrison had been divided, and in many small encirclements, the Lions troops were fighting on their own, and many places had lost contact for a long time. The reason why they were still holding on until now was that many people in these troops still believed that they would soon be rescued by friendly forces.

The colonel of the Tang army shrugged his shoulders noncommittally, seemingly unimpressed by Paul's explanation. His limited patience was now completely gone. He tapped the table lightly, making two "dong dong" sounds, then raised a finger, piercing Paul's eyes with a sharp gaze, and said word by word: "Maybe, Mr. General. I came here today to tell you that this is the ultimatum we have prepared, and I hope you can understand the seriousness of the matter."

He paused, giving Paul some time to digest the situation, and then continued, "First, you and your troops must immediately lay down your weapons and surrender within one day. This is the greatest mercy we can offer."

"Second, you must give up control of Yucheng First Avenue within one day to ensure that our army can pass through Yucheng safely and quickly." Having said this, he raised his second finger, his tone revealing an unquestionable majesty.

"This road is vital to us because we don't have time to waste here. We are more interested in capturing the remnants of Dorne. I don't want any problems to occur on this, do you understand me?" He stared at Paul closely, his eyes full of warning.

"The third, and most important point." Having said that, he raised his third finger, and his tone became more severe: "You must ensure the personal safety of all the people in Yucheng. From now on, stop all criminal acts against local people and accept the supervision of our army. This is my bottom line for you." He pronounced the word "bottom line" very clearly, causing all the Ryans officers present to feel a chill running down their spines.

The faces of Paul and the officers of the Lions Empire who were standing behind him turned ugly. They subconsciously avoided the colonel's gaze and dared not look him in the eye. They did do a lot of immoral things to the people of Yucheng. It can be said that in the past month, they burned, killed, looted and committed all kinds of evil. Now being brought up by the officers of the Tang Empire on such an occasion really made them feel embarrassed.

Moreover, they were more worried about whether the officers of the Lions who had ordered the suppression of the rebellious civilians would be held accountable afterwards. Thinking of this, many people had beads of sweat on their foreheads. They felt a tense and oppressive feeling of an uncertain future and unknown life and death, as if an invisible hand was strangling their throats and they could hardly breathe.

The colonel looked at these people's reactions coldly, with a hint of sarcasm on his lips. He knew that his words had worked. He cleared his throat and continued, "General, I hope you can understand that this is not a discussion with you, but a notification! If you refuse, then you will be completely destroyed..."

He paused deliberately, observing the reactions of the people on the other side, and then said word by word: "You know what I mean, all will be eliminated, no one will be left alive! The remaining people will pay the price for their stupidity, and in the next ten years, they will all have to atone for obstructing the unification process of the Tang Empire." "I... I agree with your plan in principle." Paul wiped the sweat from his forehead. He knew that there was not much room for bargaining now. After all, the news from Lions City was that Lions II had decided to surrender, and the entire empire was preparing for the next surrender.

So he could only bite the bullet and carry out Lions II's order, and continued to request: "But I hope you can give me some time to convey the order to all the troops. As you know, our troops are scattered over a wide area, and communication takes time."

"Yes, we understand." The colonel nodded. "We will stop the electromagnetic suppression interference within the next three hours, and allow signalmen wearing white armbands and without any weapons and ammunition to pass through our control area to convey your surrender. Remember, it can only be signalmen, and they must be wearing white armbands and without any weapons and ammunition."

He paused, his tone turned serious. “This is our greatest kindness. I hope you won’t overdraw our trust and use the communication facilities we provide to do something unwise. You should understand that you only have one chance. If you try to use this time to make any military deployment or other small actions, we will think that you are refusing to surrender. Don’t blame us for being rude then.”

"No, since we have decided to surrender, we will not do anything crazy again." Paul assured quickly: "I swear in the name of His Majesty the Emperor of the Lions Empire that we will never do anything to go against our promise. I will try my best to contact all the troops that are still resisting and ask them to lay down their arms and surrender to you as soon as possible."

"I hope you can also keep your promise, ensure the personal safety of the surrendered soldiers, not abuse them, and let them return to their hometowns when the time is right." When he said this, there was a hint of pleading in Paul's tone.

He was trying to secure a final guarantee for himself, the officers behind him, and many others in the encirclement. If the Tang army remembered their merits of voluntarily surrendering, they would at least give them some face when they were cleared of accounts in the future.

"You don't have to worry at all. We have always treated prisoners well, and the whole world has witnessed this." The colonel said confidently, "So far, about 70 dwarf prisoners have returned to their homes. We have even provided most of them with job opportunities to help them rebuild their homes. Similarly, there are 30 elves who can also prove to us that the safety guarantee for prisoners of war that we advertised is not a lie."

When saying these words, the colonel of the Tang army was clearly full of confidence. He really disdained to lie in this regard. The attitude of the Tang Empire towards prisoners of war was really well-known. As long as the prisoners cooperated, most of them could change their fate in the end. This was also an important reason why the Tang Empire was able to quickly restore public security and production in its occupied areas.

Soon, a large group of Lions soldiers with white armbands on their arms appeared in the ruins of Yucheng. They did not carry any weapons. They carried letters with orders from their superiors, raised their hands and passed through the control area of ​​the Tang army. They touched some positions that were still resisting and conveyed to everyone the news that the empire had decided to surrender.

Many people obeyed the order to lay down their weapons, and many others refused to believe the news brought by the messenger. However, they soon found that they seemed to have made a stupid decision. The Tang army immediately launched an attack on them, which was more than twice as strong as the previous few hours.

The battle between the two sides lasted for several hours. At nightfall, the sound of artillery and gunfire in the city almost subsided. Then, singing echoed in the night sky of Yucheng. It was the propaganda car of the Tang Empire playing music to celebrate the liberation of Yucheng.

The Dorne troops who were on the way of retreating never expected that Paul, who promised them to defend Yucheng to the death, would choose to surrender on the first day after Dorne's troops evacuated Yucheng. Some of their troops were still resting in the southeast suburbs of Yucheng when they were captured by the Tang army that caught up with them.

The Tang army's pursuit troops were advancing all the way, trying to capture the defeated Dorne troops as if they were trying to gain military merit. The Dorne troops who had abandoned their tanks and armored vehicles and discarded their trucks and motorcycles gathered in groups on the roadside, watching the Tang army's tanks rumble past them.

On the morning of that day, the dragon flag of the Tang Empire was hung on the roof of the tallest building in Yucheng. Everyone was cheering, but Paul was the only one sitting in his headquarters, not knowing what expression to use to greet the Tang soldiers who were sorting out his headquarters' materials outside the door.

Within a few days, hundreds of thousands of Dorne soldiers became prisoners of the Tang army. They knew that they had no way to fight against the Tang army in the wild, so they would quickly choose to surrender once they came into contact. The Tang army captured prisoners along the way and marched all the way to the border of Dorne.

The Tang army did not stop attacking until they reached the border. After days of running around, they really needed some time to rest. But something the officers and soldiers of the 3rd Tang Army Group had never expected happened: after hearing that the troops coming were led by General Strauss, the Dorne garrison on the border actually surrendered.

The reason was that many of the commanders in the garrison were veterans who had fought with Bolton and Strauss in the past. In their minds, Strauss was like the God of War. After hearing that their old commander had returned, many chose to surrender their troops...

No one expected that the 3rd Army, which had run all the way to the border of Dorne, would have to continue running for another whole day. After 24 hours, they finally stopped because they could no longer run. At this moment, they were only less than kilometers away from the capital of the Dorne Empire.