Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales
Chapter 1140 – Enemies and Friends
The eight dynasties who sent their envoys over had eight different kinds of thoughts.
The one who was the least sincere was the Shu Han dynasty. After the envoy handed over the letter, he just cleanly left. The two sides were like fire and water, and there was nothing good to say.
The sincerest was the Sui dynasty. Yang Yong came personally, and not only did he bring a letter, but he also brought the imperial cauldron, giving it to Great Xia with no conditions attached.
The good intentions of the Sui emperor could not be any more obvious.
Ouyang Shuo smiled. Since the Sui dynasty was so sincere, as long as they could accept being an outcast king in the territory, Ouyang Shuo did not want to swing the axe of war and push him to the edge.
Who knows how the battle between Yang Yong and Yang Guang would end?
The hardest to guess was the Qing dynasty. Logically speaking, the Qing dynasty was enemies with Great Xia, but the envoy behaved like they were friends, making one feel a chill run down their spine.
Furthermore, the envoy did not mention the matter of cauldron, making one unable to guess what he was thinking.
The most frank ones were Song and Ming, who said that as long as Great Xia agreed not to summon their guards, they would be willing to hand over the cauldron.
Both of these dynasties were within Great Zhou. As they say, ‘The enemy of my enemy is my friend.’ Regardless of Song Taizu or Ming Taizu, they were both unwilling to make Great Xia their enemy.
Furthermore, they had a relationship forged during the Battle Map, so working together was a good idea.
Both of them were afraid that while they were battling against Great Zhou, Ouyang Shuo would suddenly use his power as the authority of China to summon 100 thousand guards.
Ouyang Shuo naturally agreed to their demands.
The Great Qin and Great Tang envoys both expressed that as long as Great Xia fulfilled some conditions, they would be willing to hand the cauldron over. As for the specific conditions, both sides needed to send out representatives to discuss.
No matter what, at least there was hope.
It was Great Han in Zhongyuan who did not raise up the cauldron matter.
Hanwu Emperor was in Zhongyuan, and he had both troops and land. Hence, he would not compromise so easily. Naturally, he would not think about handing over the cauldron.
Ouyang Shuo only smiled and did not say anything.
As the envoys left one by one, although the quest had huge progress, it was still cloudy and uncertain. The main reasons were the Qing and Han Dynasty cauldrons.
If he was forced to, Ouyang Shuo could only strike down like lightning.
…
Just as the envoys of the eight dynasties left, Feng Qiuhuang sent an envoy over to send her congratulations. Although these two dynasties turned from allies to one worshiping the other, their friendship was not affected.
Following which, Tibet and West Xia sent envoys over.
These two dynasties were really interesting. The Tibet dynasty hoped to marry a Great Xia princess to form a friendship, while West Xia wanted to marry a princess into the Great Xia royal family.
Relationships through marriage was the best method to form an alliance in olden times.
Unfortunately, some people were viewing the sky from a well that they were in and misjudged the situation of the wilderness.
The Tibet dynasty envoys totally infuriated Ouyang Shuo. Although he did not rage in public, he did not give them face when talking to the officials privately, “Did they not sleep? Do they think we are as weak as the Tang dynasty? It’s time to let them wake up.”
Ouyang Shuo’s words were pretty much announcing the start of a war with Tibet. Due to the need to keep it a secret before the war, Ouyang Shuo did not directly scold the envoy.
You are reading story The World Online at novel35.com
The Tibet envoy had let his intelligence backfire on himself.
The Great Zhou Dynasty envoy only arrived on the last day. After unwillingly handing over the letter, they left expressionlessly.
Di Chen still did not have the courage to start a war with Great Xia.
Mongol and Turkish Khanate did not send an envoy before the deadline, so their ambitions were there for everyone to see. Maybe in the eyes of Genghis Khan, no one could ride on top of his head.
The first challenger of Great Xia’s authority had shown itself.
Seeing that it was already the 12th month, and the northern land was in winter, fighting with the Mongol Empire was impossible. All of this must wait till spring.
…
Just as Ouyang Shuo was meeting the envoys from the dynasties, the envoy that Great Xia sent to the Indian Empire returned to Shanhai City before New Year’s Day, bringing with them a letter.
The two dynasties officially formed an alliance.
Not only did this signal the opening of a trade route to South America, but the Indian Empire also gave an eager response to Great Xia wanting to have a port base in South America.
At a suitable time, the two sides would work together and take down a small country in South America.
At this point, before the 6th year of Gaia arrived, toward the birth of TWP, Ouyang Shuo’s plan had come to fruition to stabilize Great Xia’s ocean trading.
Although they were surrounded by many core members of TWP in the Mediterranean and Atlantic, and they faced many challenges, at least they had taken the first step in facing TWP.
…
12th month, 27th day, Shanhai City.
Just as Ouyang Shuo was busy taking care of and meeting the envoys, the Luzon battle post war tabulations came to an end. At this point, Ouyang Shuo held another military meeting to discuss what to do with the war prisoners.
Based on the report, Great Xia had a total of 200 thousand deaths, and just the Hanoi legion corps alone lost 60 thousand. To lead the enemy out of Ilagan, the Hanoi legion corps had truly paid an enormous price.
Apart from that, the greatest casualties came from the Battle of Manila.
A million troops pushing past five enemy defense lines, it was impossible for them to not pay a price.
Just the post war reparations was a sky high number.
Luckily, after taking down Australia and Luzon, just the treasuries of the two had tens of millions of gold and weapons, which could basically fill this pit.
If one considered the grain as well as the construction of Australia and Luzon, just monetary-wise, the Imperial Court needed to pay four million gold.
Of course, the number of war prisoners this time was really shocking.
On the Australian battlefield, including the sneak attack on the Melbourne army as well as the Canberra guards, these two battles added together gave them 230 thousand prisoners.
In the Battle of Mindanao, the enemy sent out 450 thousand troops, apart from deaths, 320 thousand remained.
Next was the toughest Battle of Manila.
Luzon had 800 thousand guards along with 100 thousand territory troops. Apart from those that died in battle, 510 thousand remained, who became Great Xia war prisoners.
The three sources added together brought in a total of 1.06 million troops.
After deducting war loses, injured soldiers, and those who did not cut it, 750 thousand people were awaiting reorganization. There would even be leftovers after forming two legion corps.
How to organize such a big group of war prisoners became the most important matter for the Great Xia Army before the New Year.