Translator: ryangohsff Editor: Nora
Chapter 862 – Great Xia IOU
The players of Morocco all felt immense hatred, and their morale rose.
However, the expedition army did not care about them. They simply focused on doing what they should do, and everything happened as planned.
Seeing that the War Fighting Legions had rushed to the battlefield, the 2nd division of the Mediterranean Squadron immediately ended their attack on Rabat and backed out of the port, disappearing into the ocean.
The 2nd division would move toward their overseas resource storage base to escort the merchant ships to send the resources on the desolate island to the army.
Even with Jia Xu’s plan, for them to siege the imperial city would take more than two to three days. Hence, the logistical resources were really important.
Taking down the Satellite City was part of their planned strategy.
The 1st division of the Mediterranean Squadron returned to the shore north of Rabat, adding pressure to the north city region whilst also acting as a psychological barrier to the civilians.
As the division had a limited number of cannonballs, their firepower was reduced to 1/5th of their peak.
Apart from the main warships terrorizing Rabat on the river, the Mengchong Warships, small, and mid-sized warships started to act. Their mission would be to bring all the accumulated resources of the coolies, fishermen, and the others through the warships to the Satellite City.
The sudden attack caused the civilians who relied on the docks for their meals to be unable to run back to the city. At the start of the battle, they were like pitiful bugs, staying in the docks with nowhere to go.
If they tried to move, the archers on the warships would shoot them.
Facing such devils, the civilians could only follow their instructions, placing bags of rice and baskets of fishes, and boxes of goods onto the warships.
When the merchants saw this scene, their hearts bled.
Rabat was a large port, and these goods were prepared by merchants for merchant ships. Not only were these goods in large numbers and variety, but it fulfilled all the needs of merchant ships.
This time, it was all taken by the expedition army.
Of course, the Great Xia Dynasty was not bandits. They were here to save the people from the flames of war and bring them to shared riches.
Hence, they were just borrowing the resources. The army also gave them IOUs.
The moment the war ended, the merchants could use the IOUs to redeem their resources or get back gold of equal value.
The merchants did not know whether to believe it or not, so they just carefully kept the IOUs.
In the future, once the Morocco Provincial Governor office was formed and recognized these IOUs, those who lost theirs would be really regretful.
As for those merchants who died during the war, that was another matter.
As for the Administration Court and the Privy Court, whether this expense should be under administrative or military expense or not that was another matter.
Only one thing was certain. As the person who caused the matter and signed off the IOUs, Ouyang Shuo would find ways to avoid the Provincial Governor every time he came over.
One smart merchant could not exchange the IOUs, so he thought of a brilliant idea, which was to keep it as a collection. Years later, an IOU with the Xia King’s personal signature would be auctioned for 200 thousand gold.
Even though the Moroccan players saw their people being bullied and their resources being taken away, they still did not dare to step out.
If they were to fight the Great Xia Dynasty War Fighting Legion, the players would have a little confidence. But to ask them to fight the Mediterranean Squadron was like throwing eggs at stone.
The fall of the Kasbah of the Udayas was a huge lesson.
Although Morocco had a long shoreline, as it was in Africa, it did not have a decent navy.
Apart from gritting their teeth, the Moroccan players could do nothing but look on.
…
At 2 PM, Ouyang Shuo brought the Divine Martial Guards and arrived in the Satellite City. In such a short while, Baiqi had already set a command center in the city Lord’s Manor to welcome the king.
The results of the expedition army in the morning pleased Ouyang Shuo and brought a smile to his face.
Just as he reached the Satellite City, Kalia’s letter arrived, telling him all about what had happened in Atlantis.
After Ouyang Shuo read this letter, his face became even more relaxed.
The enemy’s reaction was as they had expected. Since the Spanish Squadron dared to step out, the Mediterranean Squadron would give them a meeting gift.
Just this morning, the 4th division had rushed to the Gibraltar Straits. With that, in the nearby straits, the three full divisions were arranged.
It was all planned.
Ouyang Shuo wanted to see how strong the newly built Spanish Invincible Squadron was.
As for Caesar, Henry, and Pedro, even if Ouyang Shuo was not there, he could guess.
Through Kalia’s letters, it was like Ouyang Shuo was personally there, looking down on everything that was happening.
Not only did Ouyang Shuo have an opinion of these European Lords from news he heard in the last life, but he had even more detailed intel in this life through the Black Snake Guards.
As long as they did not truly ally, nothing much would change in his attack on Morocco.
Next was just a game of patience.
…
In the afternoon, after resting up, the expedition army went out of the city and launched a probing attack on Rabat.
The first to strike was still the 5th legion of the Dragon Legion Corps. Lu Bu led the 3rd legion of the Guards Legion Corps and formed up outside to prevent the Moroccan Guards from suddenly charging out to sneak attack.
Shi Dakai’s morning performance had earned him a little of Baiqi’s trust.
Baiqi asked the 5th legion to strike. Naturally, he wanted to probe and find their defensive weakness. He wanted to understand their defensive patterns to prepare for the big day.
Shi Dakai obviously understood Baiqi’s intentions.
In the afternoon, the 5th legion used various methods and tactics. They did not aim to succeed but to test the enemy out. Sometimes he just brushed across, and sometimes he threw in many troops like he wanted to breakthrough.
No matter how many people died, Shi Dakai did not even blink.
Shi Dakai’s goal was to test the limits of the defending forces. On this point, Shi Dakai was really experienced; his eyes were sharp, and he was really calm.
If not, he would not be able to perfectly complete the mission.
If it were a more normal general that was not as sharp and vicious, they would not be able to notice the enemy’s weakness on the changing battlefield. Hence, no matter how many troops they sent, no matter how many they sacrificed, it would ultimately be useless.
As they say, a famous general could do the job with half the resources, while a normal general would take twice the resources to do the job.
With Shi Dakai doing that, the soldiers in the 5th legion did not dare to look down on him anymore.
‘How is such a general a coward? We were blind.’ The soldiers were thinking in this way.
The breached north city region was the place where he heavily probed.
The 5th legion used regiments as groups to enter the city paths to test the enemy. Both sides fought small scale battles around the ruins. Without a doubt, although the Moroccan Guards had the geographical advantage, they could not gain anything.
Both sides suffered heavy losses; it was an equal loss.
The imperial city guards had one huge weakness, which was a lack of experience. When Gaia created them, they could all receive the best equipment, the best training, and the highest rank.
The only thing it could not give them was a killing aura and experience. After all, there were so many guards around the world.
A bunch of soldiers who had never killed anyone, how would they be scary?
Although the 5th legion came from the various Lords of Minnan Province, they had killed and grown all the way, so they were more than a level higher than the imperial city guards.
Baiqi’s orders were also to train up the 5th legion.
Along with the 5th legion, the Military Intelligence Division spies used them as cover to gain frontline intel.
Facing their provocation, the Moroccan Guards could bear it but not the players.
Since the start of the country war, the Moroccan players had felt pent up frustration. In the afternoon, they showed their rage toward the Military Intelligence Division spy.
Players grouped up in threes and fives to try to catch the spy.
One had to say that adventure gamemode players were really good at such small-ranged battle. They were not good in army battle, but in battles against bandits and wild beasts, they had gathered a lot of experience.
This time, the Military Intelligence Division spies suffered heavy losses.
When Baiqi saw this situation, his brows rose. But he was not going to ask them to retreat. Instead, he arranged for the Iron Eagle Swordsmen to help.
When the Moroccan players saw that, they cheered like they had won a war.
Unfortunately, they had met their match.
Each Iron Eagle Swordsman was highly skilled, and their battle experience was no less than players.
In the afternoon, the small quarter killing was really risky and intense despite not being large scale.