Munitions Empire-Chapter 1118 - 1039 Zhao Clan’s surrendering general

Sitting in the train, Zhao Chen thought his fate was sealed. He really did not expect Zhao Yu to hand him over to the Great Tang Empire so easily, without even discussing any conditions.

Three days after his surrender, the people of the Great Tang Empire took over his security work, and then this former prince of the Dahua Empire was sent on a train to the Great Tang Empire.

When passing through Fengjiang Station, Zhao Chen found that the reconstruction had already begun, which was quite unexpected to him.

He had thought that only after Zhao Yu had complete control over the Dahua Empire would he start to think about its recovery.

Unexpectedly, Zhao Yu had already begun to rebuild Fengjiang Station even before the war ended—frankly speaking, judging by the scale of the work laid out, the new Fengjiang Station seemed to be much larger than the old one.

Thousands of workers were picking through the rubble, busy everywhere. People who had left Fengjiang began to return as if they had never left.

Through the train window, Zhao Chen even saw teams of orc and goblin laborers; these people had been warriors fighting against his troops, but now, having laid down their weapons, they had promptly become excellent workers.

The entire project was well-organized, with strong orcs responsible for transporting stones or directly constructing platforms on the spot, and goblins responsible for pouring concrete, trying to level the ground.

Zhao Chen also saw a perfectly intact Bofors 40mm anti-aircraft gun being sold as scrap metal to a well-dressed businessman.

He did not know whether the businessman was Tang or from the Hua Clan; he only knew that the equipment Zhao Yu had spent a lot of money on was disappearing rapidly.

Old but not yet decommissioned equipment was being disposed of, and brand new equipment of the exact same model would soon be delivered—without doubt, the items were different, just that the models were exactly the same.

The Great Tang Empire never dealt in refurbishing. Old things were indeed scrapped, and new things were definitely newly manufactured: It’s just that the consumers were always others, the military of the Great Tang Empire themselves never did this.

Turning away his gaze, Zhao Chen actually no longer had the mood to worry about Zhao Yu’s fate. In his eyes, Dahua was finished, utterly finished.

From the moment of his surrender, or more accurately, from the moment he lost all hope, the fate of the Dahua Empire was already determined.

An Emperor of Dahua, who was in truth a complete puppet of the Great Tang Empire, was destined to ascend. Everything was irreversible.

It was no surprise that Zhao Yu defeated both Zhao Ji and Zhao Jie. Zhao Yu had much better momentum than the other two.

In fact, Fengjiang wasn’t as bad as Zhao Chen had thought: he had always believed that most parts of Fengjiang had become ruins, but in reality, a large number of buildings remained intact.

The area near Fengjiang that was the most affluent part of the city, and the city center established after the rise of Western Fengjiang—which was built by the construction team of the Great Tang Empire—had not been damaged much.

Only the buildings in the north, south, and west of the city were severely damaged, while the essence of the east part of the city had actually been preserved.

The main reason for this was that the Dahua Empire’s artillerymen were reluctant to fire towards the east of the city, where the Great Tang Empire’s customs departments in the Dahua Empire were located, along with some diplomatic departments, and the Great Tang Empire’s epidemic inspection departments.

These buildings and the people inside, including the Fengjiang riverside they backed onto, if bombarded, it was easy to cause disputes, so the troops from Dahua simply refrained from targeting these areas.

And this is why Zhao Yu dared to hold out in Fengjiang until the end: he had a relatively safe hiding place, so he didn’t need to worry about his life.

"Why has it stopped for so long?" After having lunch on the train, Zhao Chen finally realized that he seemed to have stayed too long in Fengjiang.

Under normal circumstances, the train he was on should have already started and departed for Fengjiang in the Great Tang Empire.

Although Zhao Chen was not in a hurry to die, he was still very curious about why the train wasn’t moving. The accompanying official from the Great Tang Empire did not hide the truth, answering his question directly: "We’re waiting for someone. There are some distinguished guests who are also taking this train, but they have been delayed."

"Distinguished guests?" Zhao Chen became curious about this term. Though he felt he was trapped, he also had a vigorous energy for gossip, grasping at what seemed like one last opportunity.

"Yes, you know these people too." The official accompanying Zhao Chen nodded, "Chu Muzhou, Jiang Run, Wang Yucái... as well as Chen Jing, Zhou Qiang."

"It really is a bunch of old acquaintances." Zhao Chen was first startled, then let out a bitter smile and shook his head. He truly hadn’t expected the Great Tang Empire to go to such lengths to get their hands on these "unpardonably" people.

"You’ve gone to great pains to capture all of us and bring us to the Great Tang Empire, just to set an example?" After his bitter smile, Zhao Chen couldn’t help but feel dissatisfied with Emperor Tang Mo’s pettiness: "Defeated generals, once killed, are just killed; but what wrong have those Ministers done?"

"The General may have misunderstood," the accompanying official explained once again. He wasn’t quite clear on the specific circumstances of people like Chu Muzhou, so he couldn’t offer more detailed explanations.

Unfortunately, Zhao Chen was rather unwilling to believe his explanation, feeling that the accompanying official was deceiving him, even mocking him.

Seeing that Zhao Chen still didn’t believe him, the official couldn’t be bothered to explain any further and simply closed his mouth tightly, pretending to be asleep.

Thinking he had exposed the other party’s conspiracy when he saw the official stop talking, Zhao Chen didn’t say much either and continued to peer through the gaps in the curtain to observe the construction site not far away.

Unexpectedly, even when dinner time arrived, those people they were waiting for still hadn’t shown up. Zhao Chen had no choice but to dine on the train, his mood still not very good.

After the sky had completely darkened, cars finally began to roll in one by one to this makeshift platform: just beside the official platform, essentially just a leveled plot of land.

To facilitate the switching of tracks, a temporary stretch of railway had been added here, making boarding and disembarking quite troublesome, as the train was significantly higher than the ground.

The cars stopped one after another next to the train, and only after personnel in black attire from the Great Tang had taken their positions did the passengers finally start to disembark from the cars.

In order to transport as many people as possible, the tail end of the convoy was exclusively trucks, and it was clear that those who jumped down from the trucks were not feeling well; some were endlessly vomiting as soon as they disembarked.

Clearly, their journey was not pleasant; in order to ensure their safety, Du Jia had no choice but to head north and then detour after leaving the city. The entire way was by car, with constant jolting, naturally providing a terrible experience.

The original plan was to use Huey Helicopters to pick them up after reaching Dongqing, but due to the extreme limits of the flight range and fear of accidents, this plan had to be ultimately abandoned. fгee𝑤ebɳoveɭ.cøm

Chu Muzhou, who was accustomed to luxury cars, looked rather unwell when he alighted; his journey had indeed been rough – a man of sixty, sitting in a car for such a long duration, he felt as if his bones were about to fall apart.

Seeing Chen Jing emerging from a car behind him, Chu Muzhou managed a smile: now, their safety was almost assured.

Chen Jing also stretched his weary limbs; during this trip, he truly realized how poor the infrastructure of the Dahua Empire was – they had almost never taken the main roads, instead directly experiencing the roads regularly used by ordinary people.

Having had such an experience, he felt some remorse for his daily work: despite pouring in massive funds, he ultimately did not improve the national infrastructure, a responsibility he, as the Chief of Staff of the Ministry of Works, could not shirk.

"Once we cross the big bridge, ahead lies the Great Tang Empire." Accompanying them all the way here were Pan Yiping and Pan Qi, who had been sent back to Great Tang by Du Jia, as Du Jia’s mission in the Dahua Empire would likely soon come to an end.

Hearing Pan Yiping say this, Chu Muzhou nodded slightly. As the Imperial Chancellor, during the journey, he had been listening to Pan Yiping recount his business experiences over the years. He heard about the hardships of merchants being exploited by the Dahua Empire and their fair treatment upon encountering the Great Tang Empire.

The attentive reception staff even prepared a staircase nailed together with wood for Chu Muzhou and the others, making it much more convenient for them to board the train.

Chu Muzhou stepped slowly onto the train and, at the end of the carriage, saw a face he knew all too well. Seeing an old acquaintance here, even Chu Muzhou couldn’t help exclaiming in surprise, "Your Highness!"

Upon seeing Chu Muzhou, Zhao Chen quickly stepped forward, reaching out to support Chu Muzhou’s arm: "Chief Minister, we are both prisoners now... let’s not mention the title of ’Your Highness’ anymore."

Hearing Zhao Chen refer to himself as a prisoner, Chu Muzhou was visibly stunned, and the accompanying official from the Great Tang Empire smiled helplessly, explaining, "General Zhao Chen does not want to believe in the Great Tang’s offer and thinks I am escorting him back for a trial and execution..."

Chu Muzhou was taken aback once more, then burst into laughter, "Hahaha! General Zhao Chen is right, the title of ’Your Highness’ should indeed no longer be mentioned, but the title ’General Zhao Chen,’ well, I reckon you’ll still be making use of that."

"Chief Minister?" Zhao Chen was taken aback, not immediately grasping what Chu Muzhou meant. But he quickly realized something and suddenly turned to look at the accompanying official from the Great Tang Empire: "You truly dare to recruit me, a member of the Zhao family who has defected?"

"Hahaha!" The official from the Great Tang Empire laughed: "Otherwise?"