Chapter 1240 – Corrupted Great Zhou

Along with Ouyang Shuo's order, the Great Xia war machine started running swiftly.

5th month, 5th day, Sun Bin led the Tiger legion corps to go north from Donghai Province and charge into Ludong Province of Great Zhou, starting the Great Zhou Dynasty destruction war.

The next day, Yue Fei led the Beijiang legion corps to enter from the west of Beijiang Province to head right into Jingdu Province. At the same time, Zuo Zongtan led the Hedong legion corps to enter from Hedong Province to work with the Beijiang legion corps to pincer attack.

Great Xia only truly sent these three legion corps.

The others, including the Guards Legion Corps housed in the imperial capital, the Leopard and Xiangjiang legion corps in the southeast warzone as well as the Eagle legion corps in Xiahou Province, did not move their troops.

Only the Phoenix legion corps housed in Liaojin Province arranged one legion to go down south to enter Beijiang Province.

The reason they did that was really obvious, which was to scare the Qin, Tang, and Song countries. Out of the three of them, no matter which one of them sent reinforcements to Great Zhou, they would face a Great Xia invasion.

The Eagle legion corps monitored Great Qin, the Leopard legion corps monitored Great Tang, and the Xiangjiang legion corps and the Imperial Palace Guards monitored Great Song.

It was not hard to see that the three legion corps sent by Great Xia to attack Great Zhou were two Border Defense legion corps.

On the other hand, the troops used to monitor the three countries were the elites.

The reason was really obvious.

With that, the so-called four country alliance had been dismembered. If they tried to help Great Zhou, they would not be able to protect their own land. If they did not help, Great Zhou would lose.

Moreover, if Great Zhou was destroyed, Great Xia would continue to take them down one by one.

Hence, this was a dead end. No matter what they did, the four country alliance could not avoid the fate of being destroyed. The reason why they were able to create such a situation was due to the strong military prowess of Great Xia.

Of course, if the Li Jing led Bear legion corps had already taken down Tibet already, the plan would be even safer.

Speaking of which, Ouyang Shuo had to thank the Mongol Empire. If it were not for them still being in the Persian Battlefield, the Beijiang legion corps and the Hedong legion corps would not be able to focus fully on the war to destroy Zhou.

Genghis Khan was making use of Ouyang Shuo, and Ouyang Shuo was also making use of him.

...

5th month, 7th day, Ludong Province, Peng City.

As the ex-West Chu capital, Peng City was the biggest city in Ludong Province. At the same time, it was where the headquarters of the Great Zhou Pill Sun legion corps were located.

Speaking of them, they had a terrible fate.

This army had lost tens of thousands of troops on the Great Jin battlefield. Not only were they not replenished, but they even had tens of thousands of elites taken away from them when Di Chen was replenishing the palace guards.

Only after their arrival in Ludong Province did they take in a large number of new troops from the reserve forces.

Such an army whose power had fallen greatly, without mentioning the strong fighting armies like the Tiger and the Wolf legion corps, they could not even fight against the Great Xia Border Defense legion corps.

As for defending Ludong Province, Pill Sun Legion corps' leader Chun Shenjun had no confidence at all.

However, Di Chen had given him the order to defend the place with his life. Di Chen was forced to do so. Once Ludong Province fell, Great Zhou would have no buffer zone and would definitely fall.

Peng City was really close to the Ludong Province border and was right next to Donghai Province.

Hence, on the second day that the Tiger legion corps charged into Ludong Province, both sides used Peng City as a fortified point to engage in a bloody battle along the long border.

In the past winter, under the circumstances where the Great Zhou lacked troops and people, they still used the army and laborers to strengthen the border defense work.

Ludong Province who had lost the barrier of Donghai Province was the main force. In just one winter, no less than two thousand laborers had died at the border.

The entire Great Zhou labor force was being squeezed dry by Di Chen and was reaching its limit. Facing Great Xia's attacks, to protect their logistics by using large amounts of laborers, he became the person everyone hated.

Even if Great Xia did not attack, Great Zhou was actually already on the verge of collapsing.

It was not that a little grain had forced Great Zhou into desperation. The grain was a spark, and the thing that truly pushed them into a corner was the system that they used.

Everyone knew that Great Zhou used aristocratic families to establish their country.

After Great Zhou established their dynasty, apart from the four families, there were 30 odd different sized families that joined them, forming the ruling foundations of Great Zhou.

From their important departments to their business regions, everything was controlled by the aristocratic families.

Aristocratic families were the foundations of Great Zhou.

Without the support of these aristocratic families, be it the Six Tyrants of Handan or Yanhuang Alliance or the current Great Zhou dynasty, they would not be able to get to the top.

For a city like Handan City to gain a footing in the wilderness relied on the large amounts of resources and gold from the aristocratic families, which meant that it did not fall too far behind Shanhai City at that point.

However, one must not forget that aristocratic families were naturally greedy.

With what they put in, they naturally expected returns.

After the Great Zhou Dynasty was established, in the eyes of the aristocratic families, they had established an unbeatable foundation in the wilderness, and it was time for them to taste the fruits of their labor.

Splitting up the power of the various departments of Great Zhou and competing with civilians in business profits were normal occurrences.

They even used their aristocratic family identity to do as they wished in the dynasty and the taking of lives happened some of the time. If it were not for Di Chen and the others suppressing them, even crazier and more over the top things might have occurred.

Di Chen envied that Great Xia could rule with law. However, he could not copy it because it would not work.

The past winter was a heavy catastrophe for the Great Zhou people, but it was a feast for the aristocratic families. They amassed resources, buying low and selling high, ripping off the people.

Originally, the aristocratic families were rational and would not do that.

The problem was that since the achievement value was being updated in real time, and Great Zhou was also at risk of being destroyed at any time, these aristocratic families could not take it and wanted to get more achievement value during this last bit of time.

Everything was fake, and only achievement value was real.

For that, they did not mind feasting on the entire Great Zhou and did not even bother about the riots that rose up, sending troops to suppress them. In their eyes, NPCs were a bunch of data to help them earn achievement value.

Who would care about tools?

Just when Great Xia attacked Great Zhou, the situation became unsalvageable. Within the two provinces, an uneasy and nervous atmosphere spread, making it hard for one to breathe.

Although Di Chen knew that the aristocratic families were despicable, there was nothing he could do to solve the issue.

Hence, not only did the small and mid-sized aristocratic families went crazy, even the Di family themselves participated. Moreover, they even ate the biggest piece of the cake.

As such, how could Di Chen restrict and stop the others?

This was why during the entire winter, Di Chen was really down and defeated. That was because Great Zhou was not under his control, such a tragic fact.