Braised Dragon with Soy Sauce

Chapter 209 Taking Control of Jingzhou

Now that the entire Jingzhou was under his control, Mo Yuming no longer needed to hide when returning to Zhongyuan City. Having received the token personally issued by the Jingzhou City Lord, he swaggered out of the pass in a carriage towards Zhongyuan City.

When Mo Yuming arrived at Black Dragon Village, Jiang Yuheng was already waiting there, along with a thousand craftsmen. He was directing these craftsmen to build fortifications, and when he saw Mo Yuming and Wang Baichuan arrive together, he hurried over to greet them.

Mo Yuming, Jiang Yuheng, Wang Baichuan, and several advisors analyzed the current situation and concluded that although the capture of Zhongyuan City was a great victory with impressive results, there were also significant risks behind this great triumph.

The Great Xia Empire's biggest shortage of troops right now is its lack of manpower. Tens of thousands of elite soldiers have already been deployed to various places to clean up the mess. If an army of more than 50,000 were to attack from the Zheng Lan Kingdom, the Great Xia Empire's army would face a great test, finding itself unable to defend both ends and constantly exhausted. Therefore, Mo Yuming and his men must make arrangements as soon as possible, just in case.

After discussion, it was decided to secretly relocate the 5,000 troops stationed in Wild Wolf Valley to this Black Dragon Stronghold. The craftsmen were ordered to repair and level the tunnel leading to Jingzhou Fudi as soon as possible and widen several narrow sections to allow the army to pass through.

During this period, Sun Min was ordered to personally lead a thousand Falcon Guards to secretly infiltrate Jingzhou and take control of the situation there.

The simultaneous disappearance of the two city lords of Jingzhou will likely become known to the outside world soon. At that point, the incompetent Wu Yan will certainly lose control of the situation, and his faction within the Wu clan will inevitably seize the opportunity to cause trouble and create chaos. Any ambitious force might take advantage of this to sow discord and target the Great Xia. In that case, Mo Yuming and his group will no longer be facing only Wu Ji as their adversary.

Since the Great Xia Empire has only been established for a short time and its foundation is still shallow, the most urgent tasks now are how to expand the army, how to appease the people, and how to enable the people of Zhongyuan City to live and work in peace and contentment as soon as possible. Only when the country is prosperous and the people are at peace will the Great Xia Empire be unafraid of foreign enemies.

Mo Yuming pursued a policy of external appeasement, treating prisoners captured during the war very well, which was the fastest way to obtain military resources.

Most of the prisoners captured from the Wu Ji army surrendered to the Great Xia Dynasty. Time has proven that these surrendered soldiers were very loyal, which also shows that popular support is the key to victory. However, Mo Yuming had high requirements for the army, and in the end, less than a third of them were retained. Most of them were transferred from the army to work as national security soldiers and other logistics personnel.

Although Yuancheng captured nearly 100,000 prisoners in this great battle, most of them would likely surrender after being appeased. However, according to the standards of the Great Xia army, only about 30,000 to 40,000 could ultimately be recruited. Moreover, these people would have to undergo rigorous training before they could be assigned to various units for service.

Therefore, after discussion, Mo Yuming suggested that Jiang Yuheng divide the 40,000 surrendered soldiers into two groups: one group would be placed in Black Dragon Village for training, and the other group would be sent to Wild Wolf Valley for training. Even if a large army were to soon advance from Jingzhou, these surrendered soldiers would at least be enough to make up the numbers, which was better than nothing.

Expanding the army takes time, and distant water cannot quench an immediate fire. Mo Yuming had no choice but to find a solution in terms of weaponry. Elite troops and superior weapons are also an important condition for victory.

Therefore, after finishing his meeting with Jiang Yuheng, Mo Yuming left Black Dragon Village and returned to Shangyuan City.

Wang Baichuan stayed at Heilongzhai to help Jiang Yuheng build a fortress. The cave leading to Jingzhou had a spacious underground palace that could accommodate tens of thousands of people for dozens of miles.

Mo Yuming suggested building a training ground in this underground palace, designing it into several different training areas according to the terrain, setting up formations in these areas, and also using the fire vein deep in the cave to train the soldiers.

Once the formation is complete, it can provide training space for at least several thousand soldiers at a time. Furthermore, some magical beasts can be captured from the Monster Mountain Range and placed within the formation, supplemented with elixirs. This will increase the soldiers' training speed by at least several times compared to outside. Their combat strength will increase exponentially.

Upon returning to Shangyuan City, Mo Yuming summoned Su Yangyan, Huo Chengde, and other Grand Secretaries. Su Yangyan had already dispatched dozens of reliable civil officials disguised as merchants to secretly head towards Jingzhou, where Sun Min's Falcon Guard would protect their safety.

Su Ce is also selecting and training national security personnel, who will be dispatched to maintain order in Jingzhou when the time is right. It's believed that it won't be long before Jingzhou is completely under Mo Yuming's control, albeit under the guise of the Zhenglan Kingdom's Jingzhou.

In the months since Mo Yuming left Shangyuan City, Huang Xiaoxiao has already set up the Soul Jade Information Exchange Center in a secret room on the ground floor of the Wushuang Hotel.

They trained over a hundred information administrators, and with improvements made by several weapon refiners including Elder Huo, the staff responsible for managing the Soul Jade could simultaneously manage several people exchanging information using the Soul Jade. Furthermore, all the major officials of the Great Xia Empire were equipped with Soul Jade. As a result, the Great Xia Empire possessed a super-secret and unbreakable information network, and some top-secret information no longer needed to be sent by carrier pigeon or using communication talismans.

Moreover, it has only been under development for a few months, so it is expected that this communication method will be improved soon, and its functionality and usability will be greatly enhanced.

Mo Yuming handed over the rudimentary alchemy techniques and formulas he had obtained from Jingzhou to Su Yangyan, instructing him to arrange for several copies of these formulas and techniques to be distributed to various academies for students to practice.

Su Yangyan told Mo Yuming that the construction of the planned colleges was being arranged in full swing, but the Great Xia Empire was too short-lived and lacked human resources. All the skilled craftsmen in the country had been mobilized, but there were still not enough people to be assigned to various units.

The construction of several primary schools is still in the site selection and planning stage. Therefore, Mo Yuming suggested that the college should try to use the existing sites for renovation, so that the school can be built while it is being operated.

It was also designated that several lower-level academies in Jian'an City, Luoxia City, Shangyuan City, and Zhongyuan City should be converted from the former city lords' private residences, just like the university in Zhongyuan City. These city lords usually had several private courtyards, and the land area was quite large, which was more than enough to convert into lower-level Xuan Academy.

Su Yangyan arranged for Fang Yixiu and Chen Jiahe of the Grand Council to oversee the construction of the Shangyuan New District, while Ge Zhuang and Duan Shichen, who were stationed in Zhongyuan City, were put in charge of the Zhongyuan City University. The tasks of recruiting teachers, procuring teaching equipment, and conducting publicity and mobilization in various towns and villages were entrusted to Grand Councilor Lü Rongxuan to lead the team.

After a conversation, Mo Yuming was very satisfied with Su Yangyan's arrangements. After talking for a while, Mo Yuming asked Huo Chengde about the mine.