The Imperial Age with the Resurgence of Han Style

Chapter 318: Destroying a Country in Ten Days (V)
"It's thundering?"

Emperor Yongqing of Dali, Li Weiyu, was suddenly awakened by a faint "muffled thunder". He immediately sat up from the bed, looked around in a daze, and was stunned for a long time before he realized where he was.

This is a secret room located underground. In the center of the room is a mahogany desk with a kerosene lamp made in Qi. There are a few books and documents scattered around the desk. Next to the desk is an exquisitely carved wooden chair with a beautiful embroidered shawl hanging on it.

A large antique clock is placed in the corner, and its pendulum swings regularly, recording the passage of time. On one side of the room hangs an oriental landscape painting, the scenery in the painting is vivid and artistic.

There was a row of wall cabinets on the other side of the room, and next to it was a small sofa. A eunuch who was dozing off seemed to be startled by Emperor Yongqing's question, so he opened his eyes and looked over.

"Your Majesty, are you awake?" The eunuch chief Ruan Dacen immediately stood up and walked towards him with a look of concern on his face.

"What time is it now?"

"Your Majesty, it is now 3:45 pm. Well, that is, 7:00 pm." Ruan Dacen replied respectfully: "Your Majesty, would you like to have dinner?"

"...Well, serve the food. I'm a little hungry." Yongqing nodded. "Is this place...safe?...Will King Weinan find this place? Also, what's the situation in the city now?"

"..."Ruan Dacen was confused by Emperor Yongqing's series of questions.

God have mercy on him. He escaped from the palace at noon, followed that group of mysterious people around Tokyo City, and came here in a daze. He has been staying in this underground secret room ever since. As for the situation outside and whether this place is safe, how could he know!
But he knew that if Prince Weinan found Emperor Yongqing, not only would His Majesty not be spared, but they, the followers, would definitely be chopped into pieces and fed to dogs, without a burial place.

"Forget it, forget it." Seeing his expression, Emperor Yongqing smiled bitterly and shook his head, "Go and serve the meal."

"I obey your command." Ruan Dacen's mouth twitched, he bent his body, and slowly retreated.

Serve the food? What can Your Majesty eat in this shabby place?

"Your Majesty..." The door of the secret room was suddenly pushed open, and a fifty-year-old man rushed to Emperor Yongqing in an extremely rude manner, "Your Majesty, the Qi people are attacking!"

"Ah?" Upon hearing this, Emperor Yongqing jumped up from the bed, stood on the ground barefoot, and grasped the man's shoulders. "Father-in-law, are you saying that the Qi people have already attacked the city of Dongjing?"

"That's right!" The father-in-law Ding Xu said with a smile, "The roars coming from outside just now were the bombardment of Qi's warships on the opposite shore. ... Your Majesty, the Qi people are here, and we are all saved!"

"Ancestors may bless you, it is God who wants to destroy the Zheng family!" Emperor Yongqing sat down on the edge of the bed as if relieved of a heavy burden, with three parts of malice, five parts of curses, and two parts of luck on his face.

When the people of Qi come, it would be best to "take" Zheng, kill him, and massacre his clan, so that he will never be able to turn over!
Emperor Yongqing was the 1729th emperor of Dali and the second son of Le Hutong. In , the powerful minister An Du Wang Zheng forced Hutong to give up the throne to the crown prince Le Dui and honored Hutong as the emperor emeritus.

After Le Duy Ngo succeeded to the throne, he changed the reign title to Yongqing, issued a general amnesty, and conferred the title of Grand Marshal Zheng as the Grand Master of State Affairs, ...

However, this powerful official of Dali, who was also as young as him, was more aggressive and overbearing than his father. He was disgusted with him and looked down on him all day long. Zheng Gang thought that he was "low-virtue" and "short-talented" and was not fit to be a ruler. He was thinking about deposing him and making his elder brother Li Weixiang the emperor instead.

Therefore, over the years, Emperor Yongqing lived in fear and trepidation, terrified that he would fall into the clutches of Zheng Gang.

Because, during the more than 100 years that Zheng controlled the government of the Dali Dynasty, many emperors were deposed and killed by Zheng, and he was not the only one.

In August last year, a terrible rumor suddenly spread in the palace, saying that Emperor Yongqing coveted the beauty of a concubine of the former Prince Andu (Zheng Gang's father), and used the emperor's power to summon her into the palace and forced her to have sex with him.

When Emperor Yongqing heard this, he turned pale with horror.

Can you, the Zheng family, have some shame for coming up with such an excuse?
I am an emperor who was supported by the former King Andu, a Son of Heaven who has no real power and is under strict supervision, but I am so ignorant of the danger that I want to rape the concubine left behind by the former King Andu!

Am I seeking death because I think my life is too long?

But no matter how Emperor Yongqing argued or tried to justify himself, Prince Weinan ignored him and held court meetings several times to gather all the ministers to discuss how to depose Emperor Yongqing and establish a new emperor, accusing him of "immorality" and "violating human ethics".

Just when Emperor Yongqing was feeling hopeless and waiting for his own tragic fate, he did not expect that the Governor of Runzhou of Qi State, His Royal Highness Prince Min, was assassinated by our Annan secret agents, which immediately triggered a crisis in the entire Annan region. Apart from Qi State, the pseudo-Liang Hao family and the Nguyen rebels in the south jointly attacked our Dali, causing chaos in the court.

Therefore, in order to deal with the crisis, Zheng Gang had to postpone the plan of deposing the emperor and establishing a new one, allowing Emperor Yongqing to escape the disaster temporarily.

A few days ago, a eunuch suddenly and quietly told Emperor Yongqing while serving him that Qi, Liang and Guangnan were ready to attack Annan and would launch a full-scale military operation soon. By then, Zheng would have no time to take care of the safety and supervision of the palace. If the emperor was interested, the "loyal and righteous men" outside the palace could secretly rescue him from the palace.

Upon hearing this, Emperor Yongqing was horrified at first, and subconsciously thought that this was a trap set by Zheng to kill him. But then he thought, how could the King of Weinan, who was so powerful and arrogant, kill him in such a roundabout way? He only needed to give an order, and any soldier of the imperial guards could chop him down on the spot, or give him a pot of poisoned wine and force him to drink it.

This was not the first or second time that Zheng had done this kind of thing. He was already very familiar with it and had mastered the technique to the point of being extremely skilled. He had even killed several emperors of the Dali state.

The eunuch then revealed that he was ordered by the Qi people to take him out of the palace safely. Otherwise, when the Qi army attacked the city, who knew whether Zheng would go crazy and burn himself to death, taking the emperor with him.

So, Emperor Yongqing began to prepare secretly with a nervous mood.

At noon today, when most of the imperial guards were changing shifts and having lunch, he was disguised and safely led out of the palace by several eunuchs. Then he took a few inconspicuous carriages, drove around Tokyo city, came to a secluded house, and hid in this secret room.

Several men who claimed to be the Black Guards of Qi State met with Emperor Yongqing and comforted him with kind words, telling him to endure the grievance here for a few days. After the Qi army entered the city, they would return to the palace and accept the protection of the Qi army.

After the situation was stabilized for a while, Emperor Yongqing asked them indirectly how the Qi army would treat Dali and how to arrange for him after it invaded Dongjing City and overthrew the Zheng regent.

The Qi people just smiled and told him to relax, saying that they would definitely protect his personal safety, properly handle the follow-up issues of Dali, and give him a clear explanation. Although Emperor Yongqing was still panicking, he was also slightly relieved.

Since the people of Qi went to such great lengths to rescue him, they would naturally not try to murder him again, so he could be considered to have survived safely.

Even if things get worse in the future, can it be worse than when Zheng was in power?
In the evening, 10:20.

Outside the city of Tokyo, dozens of bonfires were lit, and countless soldiers and militiamen were calling out to build camps, dig trenches, and set up outer protective barbed wire. Tents were erected one after another, and various facilities such as temporary military equipment storage warehouses, medical treatment centers, kitchens, and toilets were gradually taking shape.

The surface of the Red River was densely packed with Qi ships. On the dock, several newly erected cranes were unloading the artillery and ammunition from the transport ships that were firmly docked at the berth onto the shore one by one.

Dozens of small boats constantly traveled back and forth between the river and the river bank, like ants moving house, transporting the cargo and soldiers carried by the large ship temporarily anchored in the middle of the river to the land bit by bit.

"All units must speed up and try to get more than half of the troops ashore before midnight."

"...Let's not use those heavy artillery for the time being. Are we still expecting to blow up Tokyo City tomorrow?..."

"…What's up with those cavalry? Are they going to get ashore in the dark?…What nonsense! Let them stop!"

"Hey, hey..., what's going on over there? Why did the Champa Third Mixed Brigade land on the north bank? Are they planning to swim across the river tomorrow?... Stop right there, don't think I don't know what they want to do!... If they want to attack Caogu, they don't even pick a good time!"

"..."

On the battleship "Ganyuan", the commander-in-chief of the landing force, Army General Guangwei (Major General) Luo Yunzhou, stood at the bow of the ship, holding a telescope and looking around at the ongoing landing operation, while giving orders to the combat staff around him.

But in the darkness, it was impossible to see the entire landing site. The only way to make limited corrections to certain mistakes or inappropriate actions in the landing operation was by the dim starlight and the twinkling firelight.

If the Annanites had a decent river defense fleet, they could have launched a surprise attack while the coalition forces were landing and the entire river was in extreme chaos, which would have certainly inflicted heavy damage on the coalition fleet.

Alternatively, if the Annan defenders in Tokyo were more resolute and bold, they could have sent out tens of thousands of troops to attack the temporary camps and landing banks of the Allied forces, and were willing to suffer a certain degree of casualties in a quick assault, engaging in night battles and close combat, and perhaps they could have killed a large number of Allied officers and soldiers.

Even if it cannot cause heavy casualties to the coalition forces, at least it can prevent the coalition forces from carrying out such a high-profile landing operation at night.

However, the Annan people did not have a decent river defense fleet, nor even a coastal fleet to defend their homeland. Under the suppression and restrictions of Qi for many years, the largest warship in the Annan navy was only a traditional oriental Fu ship of 300 to 400 tons.

With such weak water power, how could they dare to fight against the Qi navy? At the beginning of the war, the Annan navy avoided fighting and protected their ships, hiding in the inland water forts, allowing the Qi ships to roam the sea and inland rivers.

At 6:40 p.m., the mighty Qi fleet arrived at the river near Tokyo City.

Under the strong order of King Weinan, the defenders in Dongjing City tried to prevent the Qi army from landing. They sent out about 6,000 officers and soldiers serving in the Left and Right Guards and the Shenwu Front and Back Guards, and deployed them on the south bank of the Red River, preparing to launch a swift attack while the Qi army was still unstable after landing, and drive the Qi army into the river to feed the fish.

Unexpectedly, more than ten naval gunboats of Qi State approached the south bank directly and began to bombard the Annan army fiercely.

尽管这些内河炮艇上装备的火炮仅为80毫米和105毫米（对应欧洲的6磅、8磅火炮）的轻型舰炮，但威力可比55毫米口径的轻型陆军炮要大得多。尤其是在发射大量榴散弹的情况下，密集而恐怖的碎片让簇聚布阵的安南军吃足了苦头。

Soon, several ironclad ships stationed in the center of the river also joined the bombardment. The 135mm and 150mm large-caliber heavy artillery (corresponding to the 18-pound and 24-pound artillery in Europe) smashed huge shells into the Annan army formation with devastating power.

The bombardment lasted less than ten minutes before the Annan army collapsed, screaming and fleeing in all directions. The leading generals had neither the strength nor the will to control their troops, and with the protection of their personal soldiers, they squeezed through the surging crowd and turned around to run towards the city.

The Qi army was indeed as the legend said, with "strong ships and powerful guns" and "ferocious muskets and artillery", and was beyond human power to defeat!
Therefore, in the subsequent landing operation, the Annan defenders always hid in the city, watching the whole process, and dared not go out of the city to harass.

In fact, the Qi army often relied on this brutal and unreasonable combat mode, using fierce artillery bombardment tactics, volley fire, and finally bayonet charges to repeatedly defeat one opponent after another.

As for the classic battle modes that are praised by the world for their wild imagination, ingenious strategies and ingenious ideas, they rarely appear, making the entire war (battle) seem too mechanical and without any creativity.

I still remember that in the early days of the founding of the country, whether it was sending troops to the mainland to cooperate with anti-Qing forces to fight against the Qing invaders, or expeditions to the Spanish Philippines, or twice fighting against the Dutch East India Company, Qi State had used amazing and wonderful tactics, such as "The Art of War", "Six Secret Teachings", "Thirty-Six Strategies"... Everything that could be used was used against the opponent.

You must know that at that time, the construction system of Qi's army was not perfect, and its weapons and equipment were not much better than those of its opponents. Even many of the generals were uneducated and rough men.

But even in that situation, the Qi army created countless classic battles, including the Denglai counterattack, the surprise attack on Nanjing, the Yalu River blocking battle, the capture of Cavite, the two defeats of Ambon, the clever attack on Gubang..., leaving behind a series of wonderful practical teaching examples for Qi's military system education.

However, as Qi's military grew stronger and its system became more complete, the army's performance became more and more rule-abiding. The battles seemed dull, as if they were strictly following the combat manual, very rigid and full of craftsmanship.

Although the Qi army remained invincible and continued the myth of the Qi army's invincibility, these rigid battle (combat) modes did not look so... pleasing to the eye, and were not what a famous general would do.

Oh, yes, it seems that Qi State has not produced some brilliant military generals over the years. They basically rely on their absolute strength to crush their opponents and then easily defeat the enemies in front of them.

Some people even joked that even if a pig served as the commander of the Qi army, it would be able to defeat any challenger with the Qi army's superior firepower, advanced weapons that slightly surpassed its opponents, and meticulous military system.

"Since ancient times, those who are good at fighting have not had great achievements! Damn it, as long as I capture Tokyo City and destroy Annan, I will be a world-famous general praised by the world!" Luo Yunzhou looked at the brightly lit camps and landing sites on the shore. He felt full of energy and the world situation was in his hands.

(End of this chapter)