Seeing that no more information could be obtained that night, Lin Hai immediately announced that he would move camp and head southwest the next morning.
Although only a few people expressed it, Lin Hai had no way to alleviate the homesickness that most people still felt deep in their hearts. The longing for home could not be simply resolved with words. Lin Hai simply said, "We lack supplies to keep warm, and most of my brothers are also unable to move around easily. Therefore, we must go south before winter comes and reach the reclaimed land before the spring plowing begins. Only then can we spend the first year in peace."
Many brothers who came from farming families expressed their strong agreement with this. In their minds, the fact that Lin Hai, who had never farmed a field for a day, could think of this showed that their future leader was not a hot-headed young man with only grand narratives, but someone who was really willing to do things down to earth. Such a person was very reassuring.
According to the system of the Daliang Empire, as long as people and goods enter the city, taxes will be collected at the city gate. If a transaction occurs, more taxes will be collected. Therefore, most people who travel long distances will choose to travel with others and sleep in the wild. Therefore, Lin Hai and his party also plan not to enter the city before reaching the southwest. Anyway, even if they want to know any information, they can just go to the city gate and take a look at the bulletin board. Well, as one of the most humane systems of Daliang, the bulletin board is placed at the city gate, and you can read it even if you don’t pay taxes, although it is always filled with news of various tax increases.
As they were all veterans of many battles, they all had experience in long-distance marches. Some of them had even followed the captain in the early days and were familiar with the location they were about to visit. They were the ones who supported Lin Hai's choice the most. It was their initial unequivocal support that helped Lin Hai reach a consensus.
Although the sworn brothers were now ranked by age, Lin Hai knew that, including himself, only thirteen of those who had originally followed the captain to the Southwest remained in the group. These thirteen were also the ones who knew almost the entire truth.
Only these thirteen people knew that in the twenty years before the outbreak of the war, all major powers tried their best to fight for the rich provinces in the central part of the continent, while the southwestern provinces were only fought between the Chen Dynasty and the Khmer Empire, and it was basically the Chen Dynasty that suppressed the Khmer Empire. If it were not for the continuous dense forests and the desperate charge of the last elite elephant soldiers, the Khmer Empire would have almost become history.
After battling the Chen and Xia dynasties for over twenty years in central China, Daliang suddenly found itself unable to secure a decisive victory, no matter how many advantages it gained on the battlefield or how many victories it won. Simply put, just as the Daliang imperial army was about to encircle and crush the Chen army, Xia Dynasty light cavalry would appear overnight on the imperial army's rear supply lines, and vice versa. In a frenzy of desperation, Daliang even deployed its forces and engaged in several battles with the Chen-Xia coalition. Despite their victories, they were unable to completely defeat them.
Whenever he thought of this, Lin Hai admired the flexible political views of those in power in this world.
In the rough seas of the eastern sea, the Daliang Navy and the Chen Dynasty Navy were locked in a fierce battle.
In the wheat fields of the central plains of the continent, the army of the Daliang Empire either faced the troops of the Chen Dynasty or the Chen-Xia coalition forces.
In the ravines of the northwestern plateau of the continent, the plateau infantry of Daliang either cooperated with the Chen Dynasty's army to raid the Xia Army's fortress, or cooperated with the Xia Army's light cavalry to cut off the Chen Dynasty's long supply lines, or simply engaged in a chaotic battle among the three parties.
The only area where the enemy and our allies can be clearly demarcated is the southwest. The Chen Dynasty's jungle troops, following the Khmer Empire, fight three times a day, and each meal is different...
Therefore, after seeing elite troops being poured into the central region without a single drop in revenue, the Imperial Ministry of War came under immense pressure. The Ministry of Revenue, in particular, stated that the repeated stalemates in the central region were disrupting the stability of the Empire's grain-producing regions. The Chen Dynasty, however, relied on the fertile southwest to steadily replenish its grain, troops, and financial resources. If the Ministry of War could not find a solution, it would be forced to reduce its military spending.
On the day they received the news from the Ministry of Revenue, the people in the Ministry of War seemed to have come to their senses and immediately decided to join forces with the Xia Kingdom to attack the southwest of the Chen Dynasty from the northwest.
As the elite Xia soldiers, wrapped in quilts, leaped from the uninhabited mountains and emerged from the fortress's interior, the Chen Dynasty's painstakingly constructed fortress in the southwest, known as the "unbreakable Tianmen Pass," fell for the first time in history. To secure their own retreat, the allied forces completely demolished the antique fortress and stormed into the southwest, a region untouched by war in recorded history.
It was at that time that the captain led the troops there.
Apart from the central plains, the southwest is mountainous and not suitable for troop movements.
The armies fighting in the southwest included not only the Daliang, Xia Dynasty, Chen Dynasty and Cambodia, but also the remnants of an unknown army, bandits gathering in the mountains, landlords who built strongholds for self-protection, and even the Western Yi people who were usually nowhere to be seen in the deep mountains.
Not only is the southwest far away from the military and political center of Liang State, but even the probability of military orders from Liang State’s southwest camp being successfully transmitted to the troops in the deep mountains is not 100%.
Of course, the most important thing is that the Southwest, which has not experienced war, has money.
Lin Hai still remembered that when he and the captain read out the above characteristics one by one during the attack on the camp, they both couldn't help but lower their voices, even though they were the only two people in the entire military tent.
Lin Hai even felt the wind blowing through the heavily guarded military tent. After all, having traveled through time once, he might be more skeptical than others about whether this world contained gods or other unknown powers.
"In other words, if we go farther away, no one will know what we did." The captain's voice was a little hoarse as he lowered it deliberately.
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