Gu City. On both sides were mountain peaks and pristine jungles, and there was a gorge in the middle which allowed people to pa.s.s through.
Gu City was situated in this gorge.
After pa.s.sing through Gu City and going south, the canyons on boths sides gradually separated and became a huge basin that was known as Tianjing Basin.
The land was fertile, and the climate was pleasant. Just this place alone could support hundreds of thousands of soldiers.
Therefore, in the history of this land, there had been rumors that this was a place for countries to fight over in this world.
"This world" referred to the entire scope of Dayao or perhaps to an area slightly smaller than it.
Because, a piece of land near Dayao"s Sanxi City was robbed by the Yun Nation. By closing the gates, they could resist the Yun Nation"s army outside and by opening the gates, tens of thousands of Dayao soldiers could directly dash toward the cities of the Yun Nation.
As a result, Great Xia could only split their soldiers into different groups and routes. It would be difficult for the Yun Nation"s West City army to advance, so they could only imitate Dayao"s method of dispersing and dispatching a large number of unorganized and undisciplined allied forces into Dayao. They could only hope to create some pressure for the Protectorate of the Northeast.
Back in those days, Dayao was satisfied with the large amount of property they gained under the mediation of Great Xia. Only this piece of land remained in the Yun Nation"s hand.
In the foreseeable future, the Yun Nation wouldn"t exist anymore.
Perhaps, in Ren Baqian and the empress"s heart, they didn"t see any future for the Yun Nation anymore. The Yun Nation would just be a plot of land within Dayao"s territory.
There wasn"t any moral or legal constraint between countries, and they still had to follow the most basic rules of the jungle. The weak were always prey for the strong.
The Yun Nation had large quant.i.ties of minerals and an abundance of goods, but it wasn"t capable of protecting itself.
This was the method to destroy the Yun Nation.
In modern society, this kind of thing wasn"t uncommon. However, it was just that one would find a better excuse to use.
In this world, it was just a matter of looking for a reliable or unreliable reason.
In any case, Dayao and the Yun Nation were two countries that were inharmonious. Even if the Yun Nation really did something immoral and Dayao stood on Ultraman"s point of justice of Ultraman, those Yun Nation people wouldn"t accept the fact that these ferocious Dayao people would fight their way to occupying and ruling the Yun Nation.
Reputation, who was right or wrong, had nothing to do with this issue.
In the past, the history of China always spoke about having a sufficient reason to send out the soldiers. That was because most wars were civil wars among people of the same ethnicity. Whether it was a rebellion or an uprising, they had to win over the hearts of the commoners because a st.i.tch in time saves nine.
Yet, this didn"t exist in Dayao.
The idea of ethnicity wasn"t something that couldn"t be erased by just simple right or wrong.
Therefore, whether it was the empress or the officials in the imperial court, they were all too lazy to find an excuse. When the time came, they would then find a random reason to fight the Yun Nation.
For example, the kid of the husky that was given to the Yun Nation envoy had contracted syphilis.
Now that the 20,000 recruits had already set off, they were just awaiting their arrival before starting the counterattack.
Ren Baqian was currently sitting on a fork-horned cow and entering Gu City with the empress"s carriage by his side. South of Gu City was Tianjing Basin where tens of millions of the Hao Nation"s remnant citizens were living.
Back then, when they chose this plot of land, it wasn"t necessarily because of the sentence, "The one who controls this place has the world."
Now, however, this place seemed as if it were a cage that confined more than tens of millions of the Hao Nation"s remnant citizens inside.
In front of Ren Baqian was the Protector General of the South, Xi w.a.n.gu, and it was said that he was less than 50 years old. According to this strength, this period would probably be considered as his youth.
He had a squarish face, which was the standard face shape of an aboriginal. His thick eyebrows and big eyes made him a beautiful man among the rest of the aboriginals. At the very least, he had chiselled lines on his face that made him much better looking than the rest of the fierce-looking aboriginals.
Xi w.a.n.gu controlled his mount to reduce its speed so as to get right next to Ren Baqian. Xi w.a.n.gu then smiled at him and said, "Sir Ren."
"Protector General!" Ren Baqian promptly cupped his hands. The status of the five Protector Generals was equivalent to a prince or princess. Even the empress was more courteous toward them.
"I have long heard of Sir Ren"s name but this is my first time meeting you. The radio station that you brought has made a huge contribution." Xi w.a.n.gu smiled.
The appearance of the radio station helped to link all of Dayao together. Regardless of where things happened, people would be notified in time so that a response could be made.
In the simplest case, whenever a natural disaster occurred in a certain place, the local officials would make a report and wait for approval to start the disaster relief. This process would take at least four or five days of hard work. Moreover, this was under the condition that a yiniao was used.
Now that they had the radio stations, whenever they encountered a major issue, the earliest they would get a response would be on the day itself.
With this time difference, more lives could be saved and more things could be accomplished, not to mention the usage of the radio station in the military, as speed was the most valuable thing to them.
Although the radio station didn"t have the option of boosting its speed, the speed of the military"s mobilization response had increased tremendously. Just obtaining news from the imperial court and sending down commands to their subordinates used to required at least several days.
During a war, these several days were the most critical days.
Therefore, the first thing he commended Ren Baqian for when he saw him was the radio station.
"It"s only an object and still depends on those who use it." Ren Baqian was very modest and didn"t credit himself. After all, he could be considered a porter who had brought the radio station to this world. There was indeed nothing to brag about.
If the students from the Black Bamboo Academy could make a radio station, he would probably be happier and wished that he could announce that to the whole world.
"It isn"t that simple." Xi w.a.n.gu smiled.
This sort of thing was of little significance to an individual, but was really a magical object at the national level.
"I also heard that Sir Ren found salt in the mountains. Also, the output of Mount Damo"s iron ore mine is now hundreds of times greater than before."
"Just some little tricks." Ren Baqian grinned. He was still somewhat content in this aspect. After all, using knowledge to achieve something was worth boasting about because the knowledge belonged to him.
Even if he found them on Baidu, the knowledge was already instilled in his head.
[Baidu: China"s google]
"If Sir Ren doesn"t despise me, come to my residence for a drink or two. I"m very curious about those items of yours."
…
The both of them chatted as they walked and somehow ended up in Gu City.
Gu City was different from the other cities. The rest of the cities were located at the border, were controlled by the army, and the commoners served them.
Over here in Gu City, it was bustling with activity. It was a place for merchants to gather.
This was because Gu City was the only mountain pa.s.s that could access Tianjing Basin.
Those who wanted to enter Tianjing Basin had to pa.s.s through Gu City.
In addition, some aboriginals from the mountains would come here to procure goods.
Also, there were remnant citizens from the Hao Nation who came since this was the only place that they could access after leaving Tianjing Basin.
Therefore, it was even more prosperous in Gu City than it was in Lan City.
Before the empress set off on her journey, there wasn"t any plans to clear the roads of Gu City. As a result, the soldiers paved a road ahead as majority of the people in Gu City surrounded to see the empress.
After all, the people of Lan City could see the empress once in a while, but the people in Gu City might never get to see her in their entire lifetime.
"Who"s the person wearing the purple robe?"
"I heard that he"s the empress"s husband… It should be him."
"Why"s he so skinny and weak?"
"I heard that he"s rather smart."
"Why did I hear that he could be crushed with one hand?"
"Don"t judge a book by it"s cover. I heard that he can transform, possesses remarkable abilities, and wields a big gun. He even killed over 10,000 Great Xia soldiers."
"I heard that the experts in the north can cultivate Heaven-grade weapons. Are his remarkable abilities attributed to the Heaven-grade weapons or does it have something to do with that huge gun?"
Just as in the past, apart from the empress, the most striking person in the group was an "outsider" like Ren Baqian.
Ren Baqian sat on the fork-horned cow and listened to bits and pieces of the conversation. He wasn"t really paying attention.
Instead, he was looking for those people who didn"t look like aboriginals.
A portion of them were foreign merchants and another portion were his targets.
On the same day, the empress and her subordinates stayed at Xi w.a.n.gu"s residence. That very night, Xi w.a.n.gu hosted a welcome reception for the empress. The next morning, Ren Baqian brought a few imperial guards out of the residence to walk around. On one hand, he was taking a look at Gu City, and on the other, he wanted to understand the situation of the Hao Nation"s remnant citizens.
Although the merchants who came here mostly used walking as the mode of transport, this didn"t represent all of them. They had to enter Tianjing Basin before they could see the real deal. However, they were still able to get a glimpse of the big picture.