Munitions Empire-Chapter 1112 - 1033 Pig Teammate

Zhao Jie was a bit surprised, surprised that he really hadn’t anticipated that Zhao Ji would have the nerve to kill his way back from the Hezhe frontline!

Honestly, this was a variable Zhao Jie hadn’t foreseen, because the troops at his disposal truly weren’t sufficient to face a pincer attack by two forces.

The troops of Li Mingshun within the city were originally more numerous than Zhao Jie’s, so it was impossible for Zhao Jie’s forces to break into the city, shut the gates, and hold out for reinforcements.

Zhao Jie’s sole reliance was on the continuous arrival of the southern frontline field troops called over from the Shanchong direction.

But what Zhao Jie had, Zhao Ji also had! The troops brought from Hezhe were no less than 300,000, adding the garrisons from Xiajian and Dongqing, the forces Zhao Ji could gather on his way here amounted to nearly 400,000!

Although Zhao Ji was still at a disadvantage in terms of overall troop strength, these were real, existing troops that Zhao Jie, of course, had to guard against.

The most infuriating thing was that Zhao Jie could not calculate the precise troop strength of Zhao Ji: according to normal people’s behavior, Zhao Ji would certainly leave behind enough forces in the Xiajian region to defend against attacks from Fengjiang’s army on Xiajiang City.

But that’s the thinking of a normal person! Which normal person would simply hand over Hezhe and leave Zhao Chen’s 800,000-strong army in Fengjiang?

Therefore, Zhao Ji might really go crazy and call back all his troops, so Zhao Jie had to estimate the force Zhao Ji could deploy based on the total troop strength he had at his disposal!

Exactly how many troops did Zhao Jie have? He had about 1.1 million field troops! Yes, even more than Zhao Chen had.

These troops were originally intended for the Shanchong direction, to recapture Guiguang. However, Zhao Jie didn’t deploy his main forces to the fierce battle for Guiguang; he had always been preserving his strength.

But he, Zhao Jie, wasn’t Zhao Ji; he couldn’t neglect the Shanchong defense line and call all his troops back to join the battle for succession in the Imperial Capital.

To ensure that the Shanchong base didn’t have any issues, Zhao Jie left a 500,000-strong army there, commanded by his trusted generals.

At the same time, he also had to designate forces to control Jutian and Pingfeng: these areas were his traffic hubs and food production zones, which he had to keep under his control.

If he didn’t maintain forces in these regions, he could only travel from Shanchong to the Imperial Capital via Dongqing, which by now had been blocked by Zhao Ji.

After all the calculations, the troops that Zhao Jie could immediately pull together to rush to the aid of the Imperial Capital actually amounted to only 10 divisions, roughly 150,000 men.

Most of these forces were still en route because it was impossible for Zhao Jie to mobilize so many troops to the Imperial Capital unnoticed, so they were still a day or two away from the capital.

Zhao Ji was in the same situation: he couldn’t transfer all the frontline troops to the Imperial Capital; railway transport capacity was limited, so the force Zhao Ji could use on the outskirts of the capital actually numbered less than 3,000!

The situation immediately became interesting: the troops of Zhao Jie and Zhao Ji could keep moving towards the Imperial Capital, and in terms of combat power, Zhao Jie’s troops were somewhat superior, but regarding troop numbers, it seemed Zhao Ji had more.

After all, inside the Imperial Capital, Li Ming and the Dahua armies from the two northwestern directions all tacitly supported Zhao Ji, making Zhao Jie’s situation quite disadvantageous.

If he attacked, he would have too few troops; it would be tantamount to suicide.

But if he retreated and gave up the southern gate, then Li Mingshun would join forces with Zhao Ji and drive Zhao Jie’s forces out of the Imperial Capital! By that time, Zhao Ji would have the banner of justice, and the capable Li Mingshun commanding the combat, and Zhao Jie would be pretty much finished.

Therefore, after much thought, Zhao Jie felt that he must not retreat no matter what! He must hold his ground here and stop Li Mingshun from joining forces with Zhao Ji at any cost.

Actually, he bet correctly: Zhao Ji really didn’t have a lot of troops on hand; he left his main forces in Xiajian to prevent his rear from being attacked.

The whole affair was like this: Zhao Ji originally planned to wait for Zhao Chen to retreat to Hezhe, and then he would lead troops back to the Imperial Capital. But when he suddenly heard the news of Zhao Kai being critically ill, Zhao Ji panicked.

He felt that waiting for Zhao Chen in Hezhe was too slow, so he hurried his troops towards Xiajian! Before reaching Xiajian, he suddenly realized a serious problem: the troop’s advancement speed was too slow.

In a state of panic, Zhao Ji got many new ideas in his head: even though Zhao Chen in the encirclement still had 800,000 troops, what if the Fengjiang army that occupied Hezhe advanced westward and caught up with him?

After some thought, Zhao Ji decided to leave a large portion of his troops in Xiajian as a contingency. Actually, he could have left his troops in Hezhe and gone ahead himself, but he never considered that at the time!

He felt that the reason he did not wait for Zhao Chen was that he was afraid that once Zhao Chen retreated to Hezhe, he would not follow his orders, not provide reinforcements, and let himself be defeated in the struggle against Zhao Jie for succession.

But these were all afterthoughts; at the time when he led his troops back to Xiajian, it was a rash decision, an eagerness to return to the Imperial Capital to seize power, a readiness to betray Zhao Chen to reduce the uncertainties of seizing power.

By the time Zhao Ji was about to return to the Imperial Capital, he realized that there was another variable behind Zhao Chen that posed the greatest threat to his seizure of power: Zhao Yu! Yes, Zhao Yu!

Zhao Yu was also a Prince, and by status, he was qualified to ascend the throne and proclaim himself Emperor. At the same time, looking at the map, with the support of powerful backers, actual control over territories, and a large force of troops, wasn’t that Zhao Yu?

What’s even more frightening is that Zhao Yu had widespread support in the court and among the people, truly a bigger threat than Zhao Jie!

So, out of fear, Zhao Ji abandoned the idea of drawing troops from Xiajian to reinforce the Imperial Capital. With 3,000 elite soldiers, he majestically advanced toward the outskirts of the Imperial Capital.

At this moment, fierce battles were still ongoing within the Imperial Capital. Zhao Jie, having gained the Nobility’s support within the city, was surprisingly holding his own against Li Mingshun’s forces, which were clearly superior in numbers.

Thinking himself at a disadvantage, the already very anxious Zhao Jie was commanding the battle when he suddenly heard two pieces of bad news.

"What did you say? What do you mean the entire family of Minister of Revenue Wang Yucái is missing? Doesn’t he live in the southern part of the city?" Zhao Jie pointed at the map with his finger and furiously questioned the confidant who had been sent to find them.

That confidant was actually quite wronged and replied with a mournful face: "Your Majesty! I went there myself, but, but the place was empty and all the valuables had been taken away!"

"Hmm?" Hearing his subordinate say this, Zhao Jie believed him to an extent. Knowing his subordinates, if there were valuables, he definitely would not have mentioned them...

But where did the people go? Originally, Zhao Jie had planned to find Wang Yucái and coerce or bribe him to get the Minister of Revenue to support him.

Adding to his understanding of Zhou Qiang, who was a fence-sitter, he believed he could still assemble a proper court.

But now, let alone the fence-sitter Zhou Qiang, Wang Yucái of the southern city has disappeared without a trace, and Zhao Jie smelled the scent of a conspiracy. Who had calculated against him? Or was someone else planning to target someone else?

While he was pondering what exactly was going on, news came from the airport outside the city, saying that an army was attacking them under the banner of the Crown Prince’s Guard.

This time, Zhao Jie had no time to think about other issues and immediately ordered several Nobility to lead a battalion of troops to aid the airport. To prevent these Nobility from defecting on the spot, he also arranged for a company of his own confidants to join in the support.

The battle lasted a whole day, and by night, Zhao Jie’s forces were compressed near the southern gate of the Imperial Capital, desperately defending behind the barriers of several blocks.

The battle outside the city was not going well either. The Crown Prince’s Guards were quite capable, much stronger than the Nobility’s private armies. The fighting continued into the night, and almost everything on the airport was lost.

All the planes parked inside the airport were destroyed, and the control tower was bombed into ruins, becoming a small high ground in use.

Relying on the Anti-Aircraft Guns to the west, the defenders managed to hold their ground, but they were running low on troops and ammunition and urgently needed reinforcements.

Zhao Jie had no forces left to aid them: the battle inside the city had already reached a critical point, his own guard units had all been sent to the front lines, and only seven or eight Guards were left to protect the command center.

However, the situation suddenly changed early the next morning: a reinforcement force of Zhao Jie’s arrived, joining the battle. This fresh force routed Zhao Ji’s Crown Prince’s Guard outside the city, relieving Zhao Jie of the risk of being encircled.

The defeated Zhao Ji was not content and launched another attack. However, the already battered Crown Prince’s Guards performed even worse, and they were defeated once again without even reaching the airport.

Zhao Jie, having received support, also stabilized his position within the city, deploying his troops for a counteroffensive, which took Li Mingshun by surprise: Weren’t Zhao Ji and Zhao Chen aiding on that front? Why was their performance so poor?

Upon closer investigation, he found out that Zhao Ji had betrayed Zhao Chen... The reinforcements that were supposed to arrive faster were now non-existent!

This infuriated Li Mingshun, who was accustomed to stupidity but had never encountered a "genius" quite like Zhao Ji with such outstanding performance.

Only now did he realize the immense pressure that General Feng Kezhi, Qian Jinhang... and Zhao Chen were facing while fighting!

The enemy was incredibly powerful, and to make matters worse, the insiders were digging holes and making trouble for their own people! Who could bear this? Who could withstand this?

Fortunately, he had been serving as the City Defense Army Commander in the Imperial Capital for these past years. Had he been stationed elsewhere, he might have ended up with the same fate as Qian Jinhang and General Feng Kezhi.

It was truly frustrating: the Empire had come to this stage, and yet they had chosen such an inept Crown Prince to be the Emperor—the sorrow... was truly profound!

Sighing over his frustrations, Li Mingshun shook his head, knowing that he still had to continue the fight, for he still had an advantage! As long as he was alive, as long as he had a breath left in him! He had to defend the lands of Dahua left by the late Emperor Zhao Kai!

"Someone! Send a telegram to the Heavy Artillery Group! Aim at the city gate above the south wall! Fire!" With no other concerns left, Li Mingshun ordered through gritted teeth.