Now that Great Qin had become a Level 1 Capital City, Great Qin had taken the first official step to the restoration of its empire. Now, there were five more steps. However, upgrading to a Royal City was quite difficult, as it required three Capital Cities, six Great Cities, nine Cities, and 12 Towns.
Great Qin did not lack Great Cities, Cities, and Towns, but the main thing was the three Capital Cities. After so long, it had only leveled up a single city into a Level 1 Capital City, and they needed three. This was incredibly difficult.
However, Capital Cities were a necessary requirement for upgrading to a Royal City. After all, just having a single Royal City by itself would be a bit too unpresentable, and they would not be able to call themselves a kingdom.
However, their leveling speed was much faster now. Great Qin had only had a Level 5 Great City a few days ago, and after a few days, it had already become a Level 1 Capital City.
Zhao Fu went to the City Hall and looked at Great Qin’s new stats:
居民:0000 士兵2000
Village Name: Great Qin City (Epic)
Level: Level 1 Capital City (1,231,000/180,000,000)
Village Area: 64,400 square kilometers
Village Territory: 4,421,800 square kilometers
Residents: 3,492,950/80,240,000
Military: 892,640/12,482,000
Popular Support: 86
Village Special Stats: Territory Crop Output +200%, Territory Crop Growing Time -200%, Population Limit +135%, Residents’ stats can randomly +15, Soldiers’ stats +16%, Population Attraction +150%, chance of attracting higher grade population +150%.
Subsidiary Village Limit: 86,930
Subordinate Villages: Logue Village, Jean Village, Dorun Village, Li Family Village, Wolf Village, Ferocious Tiger Village…
Moreover, Great Qin’s overall population was now at 180 million, and they had expanded their army to 30 million soldiers. Most of the newly-added soldiers were from the system main cities that had submitted. After all, the 80 system main cities suddenly provided 40 million people and eight million Stage 1 soldiers.
As for the other gained population, they were mostly from conquering other system main cities, which was how Great Qin’s population had been boosted to 180 million people.
Before, Great Qin had 171 Great Cities and 16 Cities, and now, it had 336 Great Cities and the same number of normal Cities. This number of Great Cities was quite shocking; before, Zhao Fu would not have even dared to think of such a number.
Now that they had such immense strength, Zhao Fu felt quite excited, and he decided to properly reward all of his City Lords and Generals. After giving them a day to rest, he once again gathered them to discuss their future strategies.
Now that Great Qin was about to restore its empire, there were many things they had to prepare. One of the most important tasks was to start building an Imperial Palace.
After all, as a kingdom, they could not lack a palace. Right now, Zhao Fu was still staying in the City Hall. Even though they had renovated it and expanded it a few times, how could a City Hall be good enough for an Emperor?
Moreover, they also had to do something about the Meeting Hall. Now that there were more and more people joining Great Qin, it was quite packed within the Meeting Hall, so they would require a proper palace to meet in.
Constructing a large palace would not be an easy thing to do, and it would take a lot of time. As such, they had to start constructing it early on so that they would not be in the situation where they had a kingdom but did not have a palace. At the same time, they had to properly design the palace.
After all, a palace represented the center of a kingdom’s power, and it was a symbol of the kingdom’s ruling class. It could not be too simple or ugly, and after some discussions, Zhao Fu gave the matter to Li Si and Shang Yang to take care of.
Next, they discussed how to destroy the western faction. The western faction was like a thorn in Great Qin’s heart, and Zhao Fu wanted to quickly get rid of it.
That way, Great Qin’s north, south, east, and west would all be at peace, and they would no longer have to fight. They could continue to clear out the regions and expand further outwards. After dealing with the western side, Great Qin would be able to obtain 70 or so regions.
Zhao Fu originally planned to take the army over and attack, but Wei Liao and the others suggested persuading them to surrender. By now, the western side did not have much fight in them and would not be able to resist much. This was now a certainty, and nothing could change that.
However, if they could take down the western side without expending a single soldier, that would undoubtedly be the best thing to do. Zhao Fu didn’t want his soldiers to make meaningless sacrifices, so he ordered his people to send out letters.
However, the western factions actually refused, resolutely vowing to fight with Great Qin to the death. Not a single City Lord was willing to surrender, and they all wanted to have a decisive fight.
After hearing this, Zhao Fu did not hesitate and gathered his army, mightily marching to the western side. Only a bit more than a day had passed since the previous battle, and the western side had not yet even finished building their defensive walls, nor did they have the time to rope in more City Lords.
However, they still had some confidence to remain and thought that they could withstand Great Qin. However, after seeing Great Qin’s mighty forces for themselves, they immediately chose to run without any hesitation. The City Lords at the back were better off and had the time to run.
However, the system main cities that were closest to the battlefield did not even have the chance to run. Great Qin’s massive army gave off a terrifying and unstoppable aura as they flooded into a few regions.
Zhao Fu stood above a system main city and looked down at the people, whose faces were covered with terror and despair. Zhao Fu did not show any mercy and immediately ordered his soldiers to attack.
“Wait! We surrender!” a white-haired elder walked out, looking at the Great Qin’s people in fear as he called out.
Zhao Fu could not help but laugh – these people had been incredibly resolute before, vowing to fight to the death. Now that his army had arrived, they had directly chosen to surrender.
The western side had not expected Great Qin’s strength to not have decreased at all after such a large battle. Instead, Great Qin’ strength had increased by many times. They were not prepared for this at all, so they could only choose to run.
The western side originally had eight million soldiers and 80 City Lords, but after losing 1.6 million that battle, they only had 6.4 million soldiers.
However, seeing that they had to face 30 million soldiers from Great Qin, as well as 300 or so City Lords, how could they dare to resist such a force?
Zhao Fu looked at the white-haired elder below and coldly harrumphed, saying, “Do you think you can surrender whenever you please? Do you remember the words you said before?”
The white-haired elder felt quite awkward. However, in order to keep his system main city safe, he decided to resort to drastic measures. After all, Great Qin had a history of slaughtering cities.
The white-haired elder started to weep as he howled and kneeled, saying, “Great Qin’s Majesty, I’m getting old and senile. Now that I’ve seen you for myself, I understand that I was completely in the wrong. I deserve death!”
As he wept and howled, he slapped himself twice, putting on a great show. Zhao Fu rolled his eyes and had him stand up before accepting his surrender. He then continued on to other system main cities; he could not waste all of his time here.
After a single day, Great Qin swept through all of the western side’s regions and barely met any resistance.
However, most of the western side City Lords had run extremely quickly, and only 16 City Lords had surrendered.