Chapter 1322: The war finally began in 1239.

In a new year, there will always be new atmospheres. After the people of the Great Tang Empire celebrated the Spring Festival, the atmosphere of world affairs became treacherous.

First, Dorne and Qin Country conducted a joint military exercise in the southern part of the Endless Sea, with a total of 7 aircraft carriers deployed by the two countries, which looked extremely spectacular.

In fact, in the eyes of the officials of the Great Tang Empire, this exercise somewhat felt like showing off inferior skills before an expert. It’s worth noting that, in the Battle of Mirage Country, the Great Tang Empire had deployed ten aircraft carriers at once.

In this exercise, the two countries not only practiced how to coordinate in battle but also verified the compatibility of their command systems and the effectiveness of their command dispatching in detail.

This allowed the not-so-strong Qin Country Navy to witness the prowess of a “world-class” naval power and recognize many of their own shortcomings.

In March, the Great Tang Empire fulfilled the last batch of contracts, delivering the aircraft carriers procured by the Poplar Empire and the Ice Cold Empire.

This way, all the aircraft carriers sold by the Great Tang Empire were delivered, including two to Qin Country, three to the Dorne Empire, two to the Laines Empire, and one each to the Ice Cold Empire, Poplar Empire, and the Empire of Nanla.

The ten aircraft carriers had been divvied up by all the nations worldwide, which strengthened the belief among various national navies that the naval power of the Great Tang Empire was no longer what it used to be.

Indeed, had the new six Nanshan-class aircraft carriers not been commissioned, the Great Tang Navy might have been thoroughly outmatched by the navies of other countries.

However, as it stands now, although much diminished, the core combat power of the Great Tang Empire Navy could still maintain about ninety-nine percent of what it was before selling the ten Essex-class aircraft carriers.

It indeed suffered a reduction… but not by much.

In April, the sixth Nanshan-class aircraft carrier of the Great Tang Empire, Nanshan 6, was formally commissioned, with the carrier-based aircraft troops taking up duty.

In May, the Laines Empire and the Dorne Empire conducted a joint naval exercise, involving five aircraft carriers. The scale was large, and the exercise projects were quite complicated.

It seemed that countries worldwide were flexing their muscles, except for the Great Tang Empire, which uncharacteristically remained low-key.

As the saying goes, “The barking dog doesn’t bite,” the Great Tang Empire was sharpening its knives, naturally refraining from making unnecessary movements that would increase its own game difficulty.

Tang Mo directly ordered an increase in reinforcements to Dahua Kingdom, dispatching 100,000 shells transported via railway lines to the frontline of the Dahua Empire on the same day.

In June, a shocking change appeared on the battlefield of the Dahua civil war. For reasons unknown, Li Mingshun suddenly arrived at the front line and personally commanded the troops in battle. The Dahua Army, changing its previously lax style, quickly advanced to the foot of Shanchong City.

Originally, the main battlegrounds between Zhao Yu’s forces and Zhao Jie’s forces were in Pingfeng and Caili, and no one expected that Zhao Yu’s real trump card was positioned in the seemingly safest Shanchong area.

Given the numerous mountains here, it was not easy to launch an attack, yet the Dahua troops, having received extensive weapon and ammunition supplies, went against expectations by launching an offensive where it was least expected.

Shanchong was Zhao Jie’s stronghold, akin to a home base. Now that it was on the verge of being breached, Zhao Jie naturally couldn’t sit still.

He simultaneously dispatched reinforcements to Shanchong while urgently appealing to the Great Qin Empire for aid. The Qin Country did not stand idle either and allocated a large amount of supplies to Zhao Jie.

However, before these supplies could arrive, Shanchong was captured by Li Mingshun. Zhao Jie’s forces were defeated, and in early July, they retreated to Jutian. Li Mingshun’s troops captured Shanchong and continued to fiercely attack westward, relentlessly pursuing the defeated soldiers of Zhao Jie, closing in on Jutian.

Jutian’s terrain was open, and also a cash crop area — easy to attack but hard to defend. The remnants of Zhao Jie’s forces could not possibly hold it and had no choice but to swiftly abandon it.

Before July ended, the situation of the Dahua civil war had abruptly deteriorated. The Emperor of Qin, Ying Duo, communicated several times with Dorne the First and finally confirmed that the Great Tang Empire was fully supporting Zhao Yu to end the Dahua civil war.

With the Great Tang Empire’s supplies now in play, no matter how much other nations tried, saving Zhao Jie from downfall seemed impossible. Unless the Great Qin Empire could immediately join the fray, Zhao Yu’s victory in unifying Dahua seemed inevitable.

“Joining the war by the end of August… seems to be the last choice,” Ying Duo said to his ministers and officials as he stared at the world map before him.

In truth, he wanted to wait a bit more. By October, the weather in the north would start to turn colder, making large-scale troop operations more difficult and reducing the likelihood of the Qin’s northern defense line being swiftly breached by the Tang Army.

Unfortunately, the circumstances seemed not to permit Qin Country to continue its reserve. If Ying Duo did not dispatch forces soon, Zhao Jie would likely be swept out by Zhao Yu.

Thus, the telegraph exchanges between the Great Qin Empire and Zhao Jie became frequent again: almost all communications involved urging Zhao Jie to hold on, at least until mid-September.

Unfortunately, Zhao Jie truly couldn’t hold on any longer. He really didn’t know why Li Mingshun was fighting so fiercely or why Zhao Yu’s troops, normally not that strong in combat, were suddenly so formidable.

In mid-August, Zhao Jie once again sent a telegraph plea for assistance, requesting Ying Duo to send troops. After weighing options several times, Ying Duo ultimately decided to dispatch forces.

On one hand, he believed that Qin Country was already prepared for war, and on the other, he feared genuinely losing the chance to intervene militarily in the internal affairs of Dahua if Zhao Jie truly collapsed.

On September 1st, Qin Country troops entered the Shu and Pingfeng areas controlled by Zhao Jie, and the previously faltering Zhao Jie forces immediately stabilized.

Subsequently, unexpectedly, the Qin Country’s royal general Ying An won a famous battle in Pingfeng, achieving a significant victory over the renowned general Li Mingshun of Huaguo, almost wiping out the well-equipped Dahua Army.

In mid-September, the Great Qin Empire, citing the illegitimacy of the throne by the King of Dahua and the heinous murder of his father and siblings as an excuse, brazenly sent troops, breaking the northwest defense line of Dahua Kingdom and occupying the border stronghold Shahun.

The Qin general Wang Luo led a massive force of 30 Infantry Divisions and 10 Armored Divisions, aggressively attacking Daxi Pass. The defending general at Daxi Pass surrendered without a fight, shaking the Dahua Kingdom’s government and public.

Zhao Yu immediately sought aid from the Great Tang Empire and dispatched forces to staunchly defend Wangdu. It was known that if the Qin Army breached Wangdu, the Imperial Capital would become a front-line city.

The flames of war spread to the south of the Western Continent: on the third day of invading Dahua, Qin Country declared war on Chu Country. The Qin general Zhang Xuan led 25 Infantry Divisions and 1 Armored Division into the territory of Chu Country.

The King of Chu, Xiong Biao, was so frightened that he hastily asked the Great Tang Empire for help. However, even though his troops were equipped with weapons from the Great Tang Empire, they failed to achieve the expected results, managing to resist for only a few days before losing most of the border fortress area.