CHAPTER 1526: CHAPTER 1443: THE CHAOS IN THE QIN TERRITORY HAS ENDED

The Tang Army had effectively completed the occupation of the northern part of Qin Country, and the indigenous people there had no intention of resisting, having been numbed by the relentless war.

The westernmost West Wall Fortress continued to resist, but the battle there was no longer significant. As a border area of Qin Country, West Wall Fortress had little industrial foundation, and resistance against the Great Tang was merely a joke.

After killing his entire family, Liu Zhian resolutely prepared to represent Great Qin in resisting the last attack of the Tang Empire.

However, his troops only resisted for two days before collapsing under the crushing force of the Tang Empire’s Armored Corps. Shortage of ammunition was one reason, but another was the Qin Army’s loss of will to fight.

A shell landed, and an entire regiment chose to surrender, with hundreds or thousands raising white flags upon encountering the Tang Army’s reconnaissance units.

When the remaining positions of the Qin Army had a depth of less than two or three kilometers, Liu Zhian ordered the troops to march towards the Tang Army, choosing to end his own life with dignity.

His body was handed over to the Tang Army, and this battle was universally regarded by later historians as the final battle in the unification of the Western Continent by the Tang Empire.

As for the battle at West Wall Fortress, many were reluctant to even mention it. It became synonymous with the madness and despair of the Old Nobility, and neither the intensity of resistance nor the final outcome compared to Liu Zhian’s anticlimactic last stand.

With Emperor Qin Ying Duo’s surrender, nations on the Eastern Continent became increasingly anxious, as an unprecedented monster turned its attention towards them.

Indeed, the Tang Empire had become too powerful. It was the first enormous nation to complete the unification of almost the entire continent. If Tang Mo could mobilize all the forces of the Western Continent, he would rightfully be the most powerful person in this world.

However, only the high-ranking officials within the Tang Empire knew that their Emperor had no specific plans to invade the Eastern Continent.

Despite the Staff Department having drafted several landing plans, many of which seemed quite feasible, their Emperor did not hastily send his troops into any nation on the Eastern Continent.

Tang Mo was doing his utmost to make his empire stronger, not just appear larger. Territory, at this point, was of little use to Tang Mo, and more population was merely a burden to be fed.

Are population and land resources? Of course. But if not utilized properly, they can become burdens as well.

Tang Mo needed his population to become an industrial workforce capable of supporting his ongoing industrial and modernization efforts, rather than just mouths to feed.

Meanwhile, the land he required had to be fertile enough to bring profit to the Empire, not barren lands requiring costly military presence.

Thus, after annexing Chu Territory, Shu Territory, and Qin Territory in one fell swoop, Tang Mo believed the most urgent task was to absorb and assimilate these areas, as further expansion seemed premature.

Consequently, a large number of Tang Army troops remained in these regions to maintain stability, rather than swiftly assembling on the East Coast to prepare for an invasion of the Eastern Continent countries.

Because millions of Tang Country troops stayed on the newly acquired lands, the stability of these regions was somewhat ensured. Simultaneously, the Tang Country version of the Marshall Plan began.

The Tang Empire practically mobilized all the resources it could muster, transferring goods, grain, funds, and technology to these areas.

As the heartland and the earliest area controlled by the Tang Empire, the Dahua region was also recovering at an incredible pace. Production and construction proceeded orderly under the leadership of well-selected soldiers by the Tang Empire.

New factories began production, newly built roads connected regions, and in the fields, farmers toiled diligently, while towering smokestacks emitted vast clouds of smoke that blotted out the sky.

After the capture of West Wall Fortress by the Tang Country, carts of orc slaves were transported from the Orc Empire to within the borders of the Tang Empire. The orcs were already eager to sacrifice their lives for their promising new future.

They could work in the Tang Empire for decades, thereby allowing themselves or their descendants to move to the blissful land across the Endless Sea.

It’s said that there one could see the ocean and forests that stretch on endlessly, with abundant free water sources... With these conditions, for the orcs, it was nothing less than the fabled divine realm.

And the labor-starved Tang Empire needed orc labor. With this readily exploitable workforce, the speed of the Tang Empire’s infrastructure development could reach a frightful level.

Building tall buildings from scratch became a routine, with road construction speeds of hundreds of kilometers a day inspiring fervor. It was truly the pinnacle of slave and machine collaboration, achieving a terrifying record of laying 150 kilometers of highway in a day across the entire empire at the cost of 270 lives.

Indeed, for every kilometer of highway, almost two orcs perished. Such a horrifying loss rate guaranteed Tang Country’s quick completion of basic infrastructure.

Part of the reason for this was that some of the roads Tang Country built were in Chu Territory, where mountainous terrain made construction extremely challenging.

The Tang Country officials did not abandon building these areas due to these objective challenges, instead pouring immense enthusiasm into seeing improving these economic conditions as a challenge.

They revered their Emperor’s motto, "To get rich, build roads first," and firmly believed in the idea that roads strengthened the Empire’s control over locales. Therefore, the first action these Tang officials took upon receiving funds was to build roads.

While building roads, these young people who benefited from the dividends of industrialization naturally also advocated for industrialization, and many factories began construction all at once.

Deep mountains and forests? Just build small hydroelectric plants or small thermal power plants... build machinery repair shops and small fertilizer plants—the new small-scale engineering projects of the Otherworld began to emerge like bamboo shoots after rain.

Then, the fruits from the deep mountains turned into treasures, with large quantities of cans and dried fruit products being transported from factories and sold to other parts of the empire.

There’s no need to worry about sales because this era still lacked everything; quality and branding concerns were for the future.

For now, merely producing goods guaranteed a sell-out market. If necessary, they could be transported to the relatively barren Shu Territory or Qin Territory to fetch a good price.

If worse comes to worst, they could be sent to the Orc Empire to serve as imperial export goods, generating profit even if traded for slaves. As long as there were products, it was impossible to lose money in this world!

If close to a port, products could be shipped to the Eastern Continent, earning a fortune and bringing countless job opportunities to the local area.

In short, increasing production capacity was the primary task of Tang Empire officials now. As for the distant plan to conquer the Eastern Continent, that was the Navy’s concern—anyway, wasn’t the Tang Empire’s Aircraft Carrier bombing Dorne now...