The Lord’s Empire - Page 568/726

Hearing Xianru’s words, Zhao Fu let out a slight sigh of relief and said, “Help me up!”

Hearing this, Xianru put one of Zhao Fu’s arms around her and helped him to his feet.

After standing up, Zhao Fu looked at the tragic scene around him and felt some pain within his heart. It was the first time that so many people from Great Qin had died – 240,000 in total – and before, he would not have even dared to think of such a number. Also, he had lost five Generals, and it was the first time that he had lost so many.

“Your Majesty!” Seeing that Zhao Fu had gotten up, Ge Nia walked over and paid his respects as he looked at Zhao Fu with concern.

Zhao Fu feebly smiled and said, “Ge Nia, you’ve made great contributions this time. If it wasn’t for your help, Great Qin would have lost much more people against those armies!”

Ge Nia slightly lowered his head and said in a caring tone, “That was simply what I should have done, Your Majesty. Now that the battlefield has been cleared, we should return. You must take care of your body!”

Hearing this, Zhao Fu felt a warmth within his body, and he nodded before all of them returned to the Great Qin City.

All of the soldiers’ corpses, as well as system main city corpses, equipment, and items, had been collected and brought back to Great Qin.

Following this, Bai Qi and the others brought the system main city City Creation Stones to Great Qin.

Great Qin had lost 240,000 soldiers, and 90% of them were soldiers who were not yet Stage 1. Now, the army of 800,000 had become an army of 560,000.

The five Generals who had died were also ordinary Generals, but Zhao Fu still had some impressions of them. Zhao Fu felt quite bad about the deaths of the soldiers and Generals.

Zhao Fu had never viewed them as tools. He had always seen them as people – people with their own thoughts and feelings; people who had given up everything for Great Qin. Zhao Fu could treat outsiders coldly, but he could not do so to his own people.

After these soldiers’ corpses were brought back, some were buried, and others were turned into Skeletons, while the Stage 1 soldiers’ corpses were refined before being buried.

Zhao Fu gave all of his soldiers the choice to choose what would happen to them if they died in battle. They could either choose to be buried or be turned into Skeletons; perhaps they would be able to regain their consciousness in the future.

As for the refining of corpses, that policy had been set when Stage 1 soldiers were rare and they had to best use their resources. Regardless, none of the soldiers minded.

Of course, no matter what they chose, since they had died in battle, their families would be taken care of by Great Qin. They were given large sums of money as consolation money.

In terms of their gains, Great Qin had gained seven system main cities, and with Battle City, Great Qin had obtained eight system main cities in total.

Now, within the four regions around Great Qin, whether they were players or system main cities, none of them could form any threat against Great Qin, and Great Qin’s path in the future would be very smooth. After Great Qin finished clearing the Forest of Horrors, it would clear out the surrounding four regions.

It was just that even though they had relocated seven system main cities, they had not been able to move many residents, as this would require a large number of soldiers to escort them. The resistance from the residents was also quite heavy, and after going through a big battle, Great Qin had to rest, so it had only taken the City Creation Stones and not the residents.

The EXP and Achievement Points from relocating seven system main cities was massive, but it was a pity that Great Qin still lacked one Basic City to upgrade to a Great City. Great Qin had enough EXP, but it could only be stored for now.

Other gains were that they had obtained 700,000 system main city soldier corpses, which provided 700,000 Stage 1 Blood God Pills. There was also the equipment from countless players, which was worth an astronomical sum of money; there were 1.2 million pieces of equipment.

There were also the 100,000 captives who had all chosen to surrender. Otherwise, Great Qin would not have captured them alive. The 100,000 system main city soldiers could greatly make up for Great Qin’s losses.

Half of Ge Nia’s soldiers had died in the battle, and the surviving soldiers, as well as Battle City’s residents, were left to Ge Nia for now. Zhao Fu had Ge Nia go back and convince the old City Lord.

Bai Qi also re-established the seven system main cities for Zhao Fu. Now, Zhao Fu was sitting in the Meeting Hall, and because of how weak he felt, he could not sit properly and had to have Xianru support him from the side.

There were seven people kneeling in front of Zhao Fu, who were Sun Wu, Chen Man, Li Mu, Du Kong, Liu Yeqing, Niu Shili, and Li Yun.

Sun Wu was the Mayor of a Basic Town they had conquered, and Chen Man was one of the people who had become a General early on. Li Mu was one of the summoned Great Generals, and because his Loyalty was now 80, Zhao Fu could now officially make him one of Great Qin’s Generals.

As for Sun Hanxiang and the other women, their Loyalty was still too low, so it would be a while before Zhao Fu could use them.

Du Kong, Liu Yeqing, and Niu Shili were the three SSS grade Generals Zhao Fu had summoned from the Disaster Festival, and after nurturing them, they were quite capable. Finally, Li Yun was a historical General from Later Zhou.

The reason Zhao Fu had chosen him was because there was no one else, and Zhao Fu also wanted to strengthen his ties with Later Zhou and grasp it fully in his hand.

As for Nangong Shuyue, after he had left last time, he had been quite busy, and he had not been able to meet up with her.

Great Qin now had 12 City Lords, and out of Great Qin’s main Generals, only two people did not have City Lord Seals, who were Old Logue and Daisy.

As Old Logue became stronger, his lifespan also increased, and he looked younger and younger. Daisy also looked more and more captivating, and her mature aura became even more enchanting. It was not that Zhao Fu did not want to give them City Lord Seals but that they were Outlanders and therefore could not use human City Lord Seals, which was why they were not City Lords yet.

Zhao Fu had been searching for Basic Goblin Cities or Basic Elf Cities; that way, not only would they be able to become City Lords, but it would also fulfill the requirement for the Great Qin City leveling up into a Great City.

Great Qin was already an Advanced City, and it had enough EXP to allow it to rise to a Level 1 Great City, making it equal with a system main city. However, it still lacked one final step.

However, as this battle concluded, the isolation barriers around Great Qin were destroyed, and Great Qin was no longer caged in.

Xianru had immediately sent out Assassins to bring all women with Phoenix Qi in the surrounding four regions, as Phoenix Qi could help with healing Zhao Fu’s injury.

Even though Great Qin had obtained a lot of Fate from the seven system main cities, that only served to stabilize Great Qin’s foundations, and Zhao Fu had no idea when Great Qin’s Fate would fully recover. If it did not recover, Zhao Fu’s injury would never fully recover, so Zhao Fu decided to also rely on Phoenix Qi.

Great Qin’s Assassins were quite successful, and before anyone realized what was happening, they started to capture women. Only when Bai Qi and the other City Lords came to relocate the system main cities did the residents start to run in terror.

However, Great Qin’s Assassins had already completed their goal, and they brought six women before Zhao Fu.