Munitions Empire-Chapter 989 - : Everyone at 911 deserves to die

Chapter 989: Everyone at 911 deserves to die

The Dahua Empire had officially received a diplomatic note from the Great Tang Empire the afternoon of the next day. When the Minister of Rites, Jiang Run, saw the demands of the Great Tang Empire, his complexion immediately turned sour.

“How overbearing the Great Tang Empire is! It’s normal for them not to meddle in our civil war, isn’t it? How can they still seek twisted justifications to demand compensation?” He tossed the diplomatic letter onto the table, with no intention of presenting the damned thing to Zhao Kai.

What a joke, if Zhao Kai saw it, wouldn’t he just explode in rage on the spot? For the sake of his own dignity, Jiang Run felt it was better to have a good talk with the ambassador of the Great Tang Empire first.

But as he was about to stand up, he sat back down after a second thought: he remembered those damned diplomats from the Great Tang Empire, and he could guess exactly with what attitude those bastards would speak to him.

Since the other party had sent this document over, they were definitely determined to get what they wanted. Although the sum of money looked substantial, their demands were arguably justifiable.

If the Dahua Empire were not to pay, then it was entirely possible that the Great Tang Empire would send troops to join the war, and by then it wouldn’t be a matter of whether or not to pay.

Jiang Run even guessed the dreadful terms that Zhao Yu would agree to in Fengjiang: God forbid, if the Great Tang Empire wanted the Sword Pavilion’s southern storehouse, even that treacherous son might agree.

After all, compared to the entire Dahua Empire, places like Fengjiang and Hezhe were just regions.

For the sake of taking the entire Dahua Empire, ceding Fengjiang was not a difficult decision to make. As long as he wasn’t foolish, Zhao Yu would definitely understand how to make a choice.

It was just that the heritage left by the ancestors, the efforts of dozens of generations of the Dahua Empire, would be completely gone.

“Alas…” With a sigh, Jiang Run picked up the diplomatic letter from the table and started reading it carefully.

The first clause was about the compensation for the damage to the railroad between Qin Country, Dahua Empire, and Tang Country. The Great Tang Empire wasn’t asking for much here, just over two million Gold Coins in costs.

If that was all there was to it, the Dahua Empire could swallow the insult and just pay the Great Tang Empire—spending money to prevent disaster seemed reasonable in principle. In fact, Jiang Run himself could take charge and convince the Ministry of Revenue to come up with two million Gold Coins to settle the matter.

Unfortunately, that was only the first clause. The Great Tang Empire then proposed “compensation for trade losses,” a much larger claim: they estimated that the civil war had delayed trade between Tang and Qin to a conservative estimate of a loss of over fifty million Gold Coins a year.

This figure was somewhat unbearable: fifty-two million Gold Coins in compensation was already quite a lot. Keep in mind, when the Dahua Empire was defeated in war, the amount of compensation on paper to the Great Tang Empire was roughly only this amount.

Everyone knew that the Dahua Empire actually paid more, but on paper, that was all there was, which was Zhao Kai’s logic: I can die, but I cannot lose face.

The content of the third clause was even more distressing: the Great Tang Empire demanded the resumption of trade between Qin Country and Tang Country within one month, which essentially meant that the Dahua Empire must end the civil war within one month.

If the deadline was exceeded, the Dahua Empire would be required to pay an additional large sum of money to the Great Tang Empire, which was nothing short of daylight robbery for the Dahua Empire.

Yet Jiang Run knew that if the Dahua Empire refused the demands in this diplomatic letter, it wouldn’t be long before the Great Tang Empire’s airplanes, tanks, and countless soldiers appeared on the battlefield.

From any point of view, this was a scenario that the Dahua Empire did not wish to see. Jiang Run instinctively wanted to avoid such a result, so he held the diplomatic letter in his hand for a long time, unwilling to make a move.

Soon, the room door was pushed open from the outside; it was Chu Muzhou, the Prime Minister, walking in with hands behind his back. He said nothing and sat across from Jiang Run, waiting for Jiang Run to speak.

“My lord, you… are you aware of what happened?” Finally, Jiang Run spoke. He looked at Chu Muzhou and asked awkwardly.

“I am aware.” Chu Muzhou let out a sigh, drawing out his words, “Before I came here, a copy of the diplomatic letter had already been sent to me from Tang Country.”

“The nation is no more!” Jiang Run’s face paled with grievance in his voice: “This Tang Country is truly pushing us too far.”

“The enemy is strong, and we are weak; what can be done about it?” Chu Muzhou shook his head, acknowledging a harsh reality that many were reluctant to face: “The Great Tang Empire is at the height of power, and our Dahua Empire has long been exhausted. We go to war… the nation is doomed.”

“How ironic it is, thinking back, His Majesty was actually right…” Chu Muzhou let out a self-deprecating laugh, with deeper wrinkles on his face and a voice full of exhaustion.

Back in the day, for the sake of pride, Zhao Kai wanted to send troops to participate in the war when the Great Tang Empire attacked Zheng Country. At that time, the Great Tang Empire did not yet exist, and nobody among the court and military took the newly risen Tang Country seriously.

On the one hand, Tang Country at that time had paid tribute and a large sum of money, appeasing the fury of Zhao Kai. On the other hand, everyone believed that the Dahua Empire was weakening and that it was not the right time for rash military actions.

But who knew that Zhao Kai was actually correct. At that time, mobilizing a million-strong army to help Zheng Country drive Tang Country’s fierce forces into the sea might have been the only chance for the Dahua Empire.

It’s just that everyone was wrong, allowing the Dahua Empire to miss its last chance for a desperate struggle—afterward, when Tang Country had established a firm foothold on the old lands of Zheng Country, the trend was set, and no one could contain it anymore.

Now it seems that if we had just followed Emperor Zhao Kai’s intentions and deployed troops regardless of the consequences to protect Zheng, that might have been the correct choice.

“Minister Chu… talking about this now, what’s the use?” Jiang Run, thinking back to when he also stood on the opposing side, looked even more displeased.

These people all prided themselves as loyal ministers, working diligently every day and not slacking off on major matters. But in the end, they just watched powerlessly as a neighboring nation rose and trampled their dignity into the ground.

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“Sigh… Regarding the compensation, let Elder Chu and I explain together,” Chu Muzhou knew that evasion was definitely not an option. If he did not step forward to help at this juncture, Emperor Zhao Kai, at the peak of his anger, might even truly kill Jiang Run.

Now they were all in the same boat, and only by pulling together and uniting as one would there be hope to save the Empire.

“After convincing His Majesty, be prepared for the worst. No matter what, the two million for the railway can be paid, but the fifty million from trade must be cut down… The most important is the third condition; the time-limited surcharge must be rejected, even if we have to pay an extra 10 million, we cannot give in,” Chu Muzhou, befitting of a Prime Minister, arranged everything clearly in just a few words.

He saw through the malicious intentions of the Great Tang Empire at a glance: among the three demands, the third one was the most poisonous, tantamount to forcing the Dahua Empire to operate on Great Tang’s schedule during the Fengjiang civil war, increasing the pressure on Dahua’s military deployment.

Therefore, the strategy of Minister Chu Muzhou was simple: we accept giving money, but you can’t go any further!

Indeed, after meeting with Zhao Kai, the latter was so angry that he flipped the table: he really couldn’t tolerate the aggression from the Tang Empire anymore.

It used to be Zhao Kai who bullied others like this, when did it become Tang Mo’s turn to be so overbearing? Curses echoed throughout the room; if foul language could kill, Tang Mo might be cut a thousand times over.

“He’s pressuring me! Whether it’s Leines I or Dorne the First… isn’t there anyone in this world who stands for justice? Aren’t the emperors of this world worried about the rise of the Great Tang Empire?” After cursing for a good while, Zhao Kai gasping for breath, sat down in his own seat and glared at the silent Jiang Run and Chu Muzhou, demanding an answer.

“Distant waters cannot quench an immediate thirst, Your Majesty,” Minister Chu spoke up to persuade—he actually had another piece of news that he hadn’t mentioned yet.

Just before he had come to find Jiang Run, spies placed in the Ice Cold Empire and Poplar Empire had reported in, someone in Fengjiang had put up a large sum of money and was recruiting mercenaries there.

This meant that Fengjiang had solved its problem of manpower. If the battle wore on, it was not certain that the Dahua Empire could endure it better than Fengjiang.

Because Minister Chu knew, with Fengjiang backed by the Great Tang Empire, as long as Great Tang was willing to spend the money, then Fengjiang’s troops and weapons and ammunition would be endless.

Now, there were essentially two options: one was to quickly conquer Fengjiang, extinguishing the civil unrest at all costs.

The second method was to persuade the Great Tang Empire to stop supporting Fengjiang’s actions: by closing the ports and stopping transportation, Fengjiang would collapse on its own, and the war could be quelled within a few days.

What’s regrettable is that Dahua Empire couldn’t manage the first, and it seemed that there was no way to do the second either.

“What the hell is Zhao Chen dragging his feet at on the front line? Is he waiting, waiting for my death before he can take down Fengjiang?” Zhao Kai thought of the less-than-favorable frontline situations and slammed the armrest of his chair as he roared.

Previously, Zhao Zheng’s defeat all the way to Shanping on the southern line… this had already caused Zhao Kai to lose face and erupted in fury.

But then Zhao Chen’s battle in Hezhe wasn’t going smoothly either: the Dahua military had assembled a large force, only to be stuck at their own fortifications, unable to advance, and could only waste time staying in place.

Each time he thought of these, Zhao Kai would recall the first war of Dahua against the Great Tang Empire: whether it was Qian Jinhang or General Feng Kezhi, they seemed reluctant to execute his orders, resulting in complete defeat.

“Why! Why? Why is everyone disloyal? Why must everyone pressure me!?” Zhao Kai suddenly stood up from his chair, overwhelmed with rage, and shouted: “They all deserve to die! All of them!”

——-

There are two more updates to be delivered tomorrow morning, so don’t wait up.