Chapter 431 Accelerating the Offensive, Multi-Party Action
"Brother, when these twenty-four Dinghai Divine Pearls are combined together, the aura they emit has reached the highest level of innate quality."
Wan'er looked at the set of precious beads that Li Dingguo took out from the Human Emperor Cauldron and said in amazement, "If they are combined with the set of twelve Dinghai Divine Beads in Sister Hongmei's hand, they might become a set of top-level innate artifacts."
“By then, who knows how powerful their own magical formations will be!”
In ancient myths and legends, there is no such set of thirty-six Dinghai Divine Pearls among the ten innate divine artifacts in the universe.
Obviously, it’s not that this set of beads is not powerful, but that no one has gathered all thirty-six Dinghai Shenzhen beads together.
“If the legendary Five Directions Flags and Five Lotus Platforms could be put together, they would probably be as powerful as the Ten Great Innate Artifacts, or even more powerful.”
Li Dingguo nodded, frowned slightly, and guessed, "It seems that our understanding of ancient myths and legends was too one-sided before."
Indeed, how vast and magical is the universe?
The secrets contained therein are simply not something that any practitioner can know.
If you can't figure something out, just stop thinking about it for the time being. Li Dingguo then put the set of innate gems back into the Human Emperor Cauldron and looked at the figures flying towards him.
"Meet the Commander-in-Chief!"...
The people who came were Liang Liping, He Lijing and the commanders of the two major fleets of the Restoration Army, who had already arranged various follow-up work and came to reunite.
"Commander-in-chief, this Moon Harbor has an excellent geographical location. We can occupy it and use it as a base for our revival navy to move south."
"We might as well clean it up completely and make a major renovation to make the best use of it."
Liang Liping stepped forward and gave Li Dingguo some advice.
"Yes!"
He Lijing said, "This huge port fortress town has a huge amount of money and food supplies, enough to supply our fleet for more than a few years. It has an excellent geographical location, and it would be a pity to give it up."
"Anyway, we are going to launch a trench war in the Lingdingyang Sea area, and take advantage of the situation to destroy the Portuguese who occupy our trenches, cut off the trade routes between the southern aristocratic families and those western white barbarians, and it would not be a problem to occupy this Yuegang at the same time."
In this southward combat plan, the ultimate goal is not only to pursue Zheng’s fleet, but also to pull out this hard nail in one fell swoop.
The most important purpose is to allow the Fuxing Navy to replace Zheng’s army and become the sole overlord of the southeastern coast of the Ming Dynasty after defeating it.
This would cut off the main channel for the southern aristocratic families to trade with the white Hu people, so as to achieve the goal of restricting the aristocratic families from expanding their military power.
After all, those white barbarians from the West are profit-driven and will sell anything as long as they can afford the price.
The major southern families who are unwilling to accept defeat have no shortage of huge amounts of money and materials. Once they work hard to develop their military strength, they will undoubtedly pose a huge threat to the Restoration Army in the future.
From a strategic perspective, these aristocratic families on the southeastern coast pose a much greater threat than the Ming Dynasty court and the royal family.
Just like the Fuxing Army's strategy of cutting off the Grand Canal, cutting off the maritime trade routes in the southeastern waters is the best way to restrict the opponent's development and growth.
In this vast world, the various cultivation resources of the East and the West complement each other, and their advantages are too great.
"Well, this huge Yuegang area has excellent geographical advantages, and it would be great to occupy it."
Li Dingguo nodded after hearing this, thought for a moment, and then said, "But if you want to occupy it firmly, I need to personally set up a top-grade protective formation."
"Otherwise, under the desperate counterattack of those southern noble families, this naval base will be difficult to defend, and it will also tie up a large number of our Renaissance Army's troops."
"Only by building it into a core base with defenses no worse than Lingshan Island can we achieve the goal of being unbreakable."
Now that the decision had been made, Li Dingguo immediately called for Da Jin, rode it to quickly and in detail inspect the topography of the entire vast Yuegang area, and then began to set up a top-notch protective formation.
His current cultivation level is different from before, so it is very efficient for him to set up a large protective formation, and the power of the formation has also been greatly enhanced.
In this lair of Zheng's army, there are innumerable reserves of various spiritual minerals and materials, and there is no shortage of materials for setting up formations, allowing Li Dingguo to give full play to his abilities.
"Duh!"
Three days later, Li Dingguo stood in the air and cast a mysterious seal towards the center of the formation below. A five-colored rune sank into the ground.
"Buzz..."
Rays of colorful light rose from the thousands of miles around Moon Harbor, flickering continuously, and then formed a colorful formation light shield, which then disappeared into the void.
"Yes, this Five Elements Guardian Formation is more powerful than the current Lingshan Island Guardian Formation. Together with the large number of coastal defense artillery deployed on various artillery platforms, it is enough to block the strong attack launched by the outside world."
He used his full spiritual power to carefully sense the strength of this newest protective formation and nodded with satisfaction.
Over the past three days, 600,000 soldiers of the Renaissance Army have all participated in the large-scale expansion and renovation of Yuegang City.
The work efficiency of warriors is countless times higher than that of ordinary people. Therefore, in just three days, the Yuegang Fortress, which has expanded several times in scale, has been completely transformed.
The new Yuegang City not only has super strong defense capabilities, but also inherits the fine style of the Renaissance Army: clean, grand, and complete with various basic building facilities.
Even dozens of new large farms in the city have been built and put into use.
This model of self-sufficiency among the military and civilians in the city is the biggest feature of the towns under the jurisdiction of the Restoration Army.
Even if the city is surrounded by enemies, the supply of various food materials in the city can still circulate healthily and be self-sufficient.
Coupled with the powerful protective magic circle and a large number of artillery batteries, it is not something that the current hostile forces can break through from the outside.
There is no doubt that the Yuegang fortress town, which has undergone a thorough transformation and construction, has its own defensive capabilities that are even stronger than Chang'an City.
Although this consumed a lot of manpower and material resources to build, it was well worth it for a large naval base isolated on the southern coast.
A large forward base is crucial to the revival of the navy.
Like all the fortress towns currently occupied by the Renaissance Army, the entry and exit restrictions of the protective magic circle here are related to the magic weapon identity tokens of the soldiers.
If an enemy spy wants to sneak in, as long as he does not have a magic weapon token corresponding to his identity, he will be automatically identified by the protective formation, which is tantamount to walking into a trap.
Li Dingguo used his own natal artifact, the Human Emperor Cauldron, to develop and refine an identity magic weapon token, which is currently considered the unique identity proof of the Renaissance Army and an important factor in the stability within his own jurisdiction.
At this point, Yuegang City, a large fortress town, has been completely brought under the control of the Renaissance Army. It will inevitably become a vital base for the Renaissance Navy in the future and play a huge role.
At noon the next day, after all worries were put to rest and all the follow-up work in Yuegang City was completed, a large fleet set sail from the East City Wharf, which had been expanded several times in size.
With the 100,000 naval officers and soldiers watching, the ship slowly sailed out of the huge, newly renovated port and headed rapidly toward the southern coastal area. The goal of this expedition was the trench in the Lingding Ocean.
It is time to take back this large island occupied by white barbarians from the West.
And all the interests that the white barbarians on the island had previously occupied will be recovered with interest.
……
South of Tongguan, is Maojindu on the north bank of the Yellow River.
Countless battle flags were flying, and a huge fleet was gathering here, almost crowding the huge dock.
This vital riverside fortress town had just been captured by the Qinglong Legion of the Renaissance Army.
Seven days ago, the Qinglong Legion set out from Tongguan on a treasure ship, arrived here yesterday, launched a fierce attack early this morning, and won the battle easily.
"Commander-in-chief, why don't we advance along the Yellow River and capture the ancient capital of Luoyang, thousands of miles away, in one fell swoop."
Shi Xiangyuan, deputy commander of the Azure Dragon Corps, suggested to Cao Yongxiang with a look of unsatisfied intention on his face, "Anyway, with the general manager personally leading the Suzaku Corps and the Qilin Corps, it is enough to capture the remaining half of Jin Province."
"Lu Xiangsheng and Sun Chuanting are currently expanding their army, and they haven't even finished training the new recruits. With their current number of less than 200,000 veterans, they can't stop the attack of our Fuxing Army at all."
"They have retreated to the south of Qinshui River after being defeated one after another, leaving the entire western part of Jin Province to our Renaissance Army."
Shi Xiangyuan was not being complacent or arrogant, but in the current war situation, the Fusion Army had already occupied an absolute dominant position.
If things go as expected, the entire province of Jin will fall under the control of the Fuxing Army this year.
After Hong Chengchou took the initiative to lead his troops to evacuate Qin territory, the six main armies of the Fuxing Army divided into six groups and swept towards Qin territory in all directions. In just three months, they firmly controlled the entire Qin territory.
As the new recruits camps formed in various places continued to produce a large number of warriors and soldiers and took over the defense of various towns in Qin, Hongmei immediately ordered a full-scale offensive against Jin Province.
Although Lu Xiangsheng and Sun Chuanting tried their best to organize a counterattack, the gap in strength between the two sides was too large, and they were defeated repeatedly and retreated again and again.
It’s not that these two talented generals are incompetent, but that a good cook cannot cook without rice.
As the Fuxing Army expanded, more and more aristocratic families, wealthy merchants and tycoons in the three northwestern provinces were destroyed, causing Lu Xiangsheng and Sun Chuanting to receive less and less assistance.
This formed a vicious cycle: the government troops' counterattack became increasingly weak.
Originally, the Ming court wanted to withdraw the Guanning Army to the west to reinforce the three northwestern provinces, but because the land of Qi and Lu fell into the hands of the Fuxing Army on the southeast coast, the threat to the court was even greater.
The million Guanning troops recently recruited by the imperial court rushed south to deal with the Fuxing Army that was now launching a fierce attack on Dongchang Prefecture.
This made it so that Lu Xiangsheng and Sun Chuanting, who were short of troops, could not stop the rapid advance of the six main armies of the Fuxing Army, and continuous defeats were inevitable.
Not long ago, the city of Taiyuan was captured by the Suzaku Army led by Hongmei herself, which meant that the entire Taiyuan city had fallen into the control of the Fuxing Army.
Therefore, the military decided that the Qinglong Corps, led by Cao Yongxiang, would join forces with the Xuanwu Corps to capture all towns on both sides of the Yellow River.
The ultimate goal is to join forces with the Fuxing Army on the southeast coast, completely cut off the connection between the north and the south of the Ming Dynasty, create a strategic advantage, force the Ming court to move south, and give up all the territories north of the Yellow River.
Once this conspiracy is successfully implemented, the Fuxing Army will completely reverse the passive defensive combat mode, turn passivity into initiative, and lay a strong foundation for the future.
"To attack Luoyang City?"
Cao Yongxiang shook his head and said, "The Central Plains is not within our army's attack target this year. Although Luoyang City is just a city, it can't stop our Qinglong Army at all."
"Our army's goal this year is to achieve the strategy of forcing the Ming Dynasty to relocate its capital, obtain enough territory for development and growth, and at the same time replace the confrontation between the Ming Dynasty and the Later Jin Tartars, and completely block the Tartars' plan to enter the pass."
"The commander-in-chief said that before our Fuxing Army destroys the Ming Dynasty, we must first destroy the Later Jin Tartars."
"Only in this way can we preserve the vitality of the Han people as much as possible, which will be beneficial to the overall situation in the future."
"Shi Xiangyuan, the military's orders must be strictly followed and no more trouble should be caused!"
"Pass the order down, the large fleet will take a day off and eliminate the hidden dangers here!"
"In two months at most, we must completely open up the connection with the land of Qi and Lu, and integrate the two Renaissance armies in the east and west into one whole!"
To be honest, he was also very tempted to capture Luoyang City, but in the face of the overall situation, he had to suppress this idea temporarily.
After all, compared with the declining Ming Dynasty, the Later Jin Tartars entrenched in the vast Liaodong region were the real formidable enemy.
"Yes, Commander-in-Chief!"
Shi Xiangyuan immediately took the order and left to convey the latest military orders.
……
In Zezhou Prefecture, Lu Xiangsheng and his younger brother Lu Xiangguan sat opposite each other, both with worried looks on their faces.
"Brother, Xiang Jin's operations outside the Great Wall have been very difficult recently, and we have no choice but to withdraw from the northern prairie and return to the Great Wall ahead of schedule."
Lu Xiangguan controlled the intelligence department of the Tianxiong Army and reported the latest intelligence he had just received to Lu Xiangsheng, saying, "Xiang Jin and Hu Dawei led 100,000 Tianxiong Army soldiers out of the border a few months ago. They raided and killed many Mongolian Tartar tribes and obtained nearly 200,000 spirit beasts and war horses."
"However, recently, a large number of elite cavalrymen of the Fuxing Army have appeared on the grasslands north of Xuanfu. They swept everywhere and wiped out countless Tatar tribes."
"Xiang Jin and his men encountered the enemy once and were easily defeated by them. They had to evacuate back from the grassland immediately."
"Fortunately, we obtained nearly 200,000 spiritual beasts and war horses before, and made a deal with Hong Chengchou and Sun Chuanting respectively, using 50,000 spiritual beasts and war horses respectively to exchange a large amount of military supplies with them."
"Now, we, Hong Chengchou's Qin Army, and Sun Chuanting's Jin Army have each formed an elite cavalry, which can be regarded as having good mobile combat capabilities."
"Hong Chengchou and Sun Chuanting are ruthless and have taken a large amount of money and food from the wealthy families and merchants through robbery. They are expanding their army much faster than our Tianxiong Army."
At this point, Lu Xiangguan looked at his elder brother Lu Xiangsheng with a very complicated look.
My elder brother is good in every way, except that he is a little too honest.
If this continues, we might suffer a great loss.
(End of this chapter)
