The World Online
chapter-1329-30041322

The Gupta Dynasty’s self-preservation destroyed the Peacock Dynasty’s last hope.

With the cooperation between Great Xia and the Ashoka Dynasty, the east and west fronts converged on the Peacock Dynasty. All of a sudden, they were losing on both fronts, and their territory was shrinking at a visible rate.

The Peacock King panicked, but there was nothing he could do about it.

On the contrary, toward the Gupta Dynasty in the south, Great Xia and the Ashoka Dynasty chose a conservative strategy, taking disturbance and restriction as a priority.

As long as the Gupta Dynasty did not help the Peacock Dynasty, all would be good.

The Gupta King was not a fool and knew that the enemy was doing this not to truly let him go but to take them down one by one. Once the Peacock Dynasty was destroyed, he would be next.

However, the strength that they possessed was enough to defend but not enough to counterattack.

The situation was very apparent. In this two-versus-two scenario, Great Xia and the Ashoka Dynasty’s strong combination was suppressing the Peacock and Gupta dynasties.

Victory was just a matter of time.

…

7th month, 20th day, India.

As Great Xia and the Ashoka Dynasty Alliance Army claimed victory after victory, an unfriendly piece of news spread out through India, causing a crack to form in their relationship.

This matter started a week ago.

After Great Xia’s west front entered Peacock Dynasty territory, they would arrange for people to collect the resources and transport them to the nearby Hetao Province with every city occupied.

Not only that, but even the people were raided, getting forced to migrate over.

Great Xia’s weird actions unavoidably raised the doubts of the people.

After all, this was not how Great Xia usually acted. With their military discipline, they usually let the people off and would try their best to settle down the locals.

Great Xia had never committed such acts.

Outsiders did not understand what was happening but Ashoka did.

Based on the alliance contract that they signed, the Peacock Dynasty’s territory would be given to the Ashoka Dynasty in the future. Great Xia was taking such action to gain some benefits from it.

“But aren’t they going a little too far.” Ashoka was annoyed.

For the last few days, since both sides had just begun working together and considering the war situation, Ashoka King did not say anything.

Unexpectedly, the Great Xia Army became even more unrestrained because of that.

Based on the news from the scouts on the frontlines, Great Xia was sweeping up everything.

Once the war ended, these cities would all be empty when Ashoka accepted them; this greatly stepped into the Ashoka Dynasty’s interests.

When the Ashoka King received the report, he could not take it anymore and personally reached out to the Xia emperor.

When he received the information from Ashoka, Ouyang Shuo treated it really seriously. First, he expressed his apologies and continued with, “The frontline soldiers are acting on their own, not following orders. I’ve failed to control them; I’ll give you an answer.”

This left Ashoka really confused.

“Did the Xia emperor not instruct the army to do that?”

Ashoka definitely did not believe that.

Everyone in the world knew that on a global scale, the Great Xia Army was famous for being disciplined. If the Imperial Court did not give them instructions to act as such, they definitely would not do that.

“Did an official in Great Xia incite this?”

The Ashoka King did not exclude the possibility of this happening. Of course, what most likely happened was that the Xia emperor himself was acting like he did not know anything to save face.

Ashoka himself had used such tricks many times in the past.

Luckily, with the Xia emperor’s promise, this problem would come to an end no matter what.

The Ashoka King knew his place and did not bring up the issue of compensation. As long as the Great Xia Army stopped these actions, the little losses the Ashoka Dynasty had suffered so far would not be much.

In truth, Ashoka would not flip on Great Xia because of such small profits.

No matter what, the India war situation was beneficial to them. Moreover, before they obtained a clear victory, many things could happen.

At such a time, the worry would be the alliance having cracks and breaking apart.

The Ashoka King understood the importance of this.

After this, since he handled the matter well and did not lose his head, Ashoka felt delighted.

…

Unfortunately, the following events proved that Ashoka was happy a little too early.

After Ashoka personally appealed, Great Xia seemed to stop on the surface, allowing him to heave a sigh of relief.

However, just a week later, a new situation that occurred.

Based on the reports from the spies, Great Xia’s actions went from on the surface to in the dark. Although they did not openly take money and grain, they ‘invited’ merchants to Hetao Province to invest and do business.

Facing the army’s personal visits, how could they refuse?

At the same time, Great Xia’s Nanjiang Governor-General House also openly hired talents from the occupied regions.

Although they did not sweep up everyone, they took in all kinds of talents, taking the cream of the crop.

Great Xia’s method was truly ingenious.

Saying that all parties were willing, they openly stole talents in a flawless manner.

Due to many years of fighting, the merchants and talents were not all forced to accept the olive branch from Great Xia. A large portion of them willingly moved over to Nanjiang.

After all, everyone sought a peaceful life.

In comparison, the civilians did not like the Ashoka Dynasty as much.

When Ashoka received the report, he was so furious that his face turned black. However, there was nothing he could do. After all, the civilians of the occupied land were all willing to move, so Ashoka did not have the face to complain.

As a ruler, he had his own pride.

He could not be like a peddler and quarrel with the Xia emperor like a little kid.

Ashoka could not lose his face like that.

“We have to take measures!”

Ashoka was a prideful person. Since he had eaten a defeat, he wanted to turn the situation around.

Not complaining did not mean that there was nothing he could do about it.

“‘Men!” Ashoka shouted.

“Present!”

The Ashoka King ordered, “Let the personal troops know that I want to go to the frontlines myself.”

“Yes!”

Ashoka had calculated everything. Since he could not stop Great Xia from playing tricks, he could only let his strength do the talking. He would gather his forces on the frontlines of the Peacock Dynasty to race against Great Xia.

The faster they conquered the Peacock Dynasty, they less that they would lose. The more cities they conquered, the less Great Xia could take.

This idea seemed dumb and careless, but it was the only way for Ashoka now.

“I want to see exactly how many cities Great Xia can take down.”