220: Chapter 220 Internal Troubles

However, those terrifying cannonballs, capable of easily leveling a city wall, could only spark insignificantly when they struck the thick, keratinized, grayish-brown skin of that deep-sea monster, the Kraken!

They couldn't even leave a single white mark on its body!

This was a completely lopsided battle!

This was a desperate contest between a Mortal and a myth!

In just the first wave of attacks, nearly twenty capital ships of the entire Southern Route Army fleet were completely sunk or heavily damaged!

Tens of thousands of elite marines were thus silently buried in these cold, foreign waters!

Just when everyone's hearts were filled with endless despair, believing they were doomed to perish here today, a terrifying roar, filled with endless dominance and arrogance like a thunderclap, exploded in everyone's ears like a dazzling bolt of lightning piercing through the endless darkness!

"What a wicked beast! How dare you act so presumptuously before this commander!"

On the steel deck of the flagship "Dingyuan," already thoroughly battered by the storm, the Southern Route Army's supreme commander, "Overlord" Xiang Hao, stood proudly, his towering, iron-tower-like physique standing firm!

His wild, lion-mane-like long black hair danced wantonly in the gale!

In his tiger-like eyes, filled with endless dominance and Battle Intent, two balls of raging, tangible golden flames burned!

Far from feeling any fear due to the appearance of this terrifying world-destroying beast before him,

on the contrary, a cruel, excited smile—like a hunter seeing long-awaited prey—appeared on his handsome, masculine face!

"Well come! This commander was just worried that this journey was too dull and boring!"

"Today, let this commander use the blood of you wicked beast to sharpen this overlord spear, which has long been famished and impatient!"

Before the words faded, Xiang Hao suddenly extended his right hand!

"Hum——!!!"

A clear spear-hum, filled with endless dominance and rugged majesty, resounded throughout heaven and earth!

The peerless divine weapon—the overlord spear—which had been enshrined in the captain's cabin, forged entirely from ten-thousand-year star iron, with a vivid, ferocious black Dragon coiled around its shaft, seemed to possess a life of its own; it turned into a streak of black light and instantly appeared in Xiang Hao's hand!

"Rise for this commander!"

Xiang Hao let out a heaven-shaking roar!

He actually treated the eighteen-foot-long, thirteen-hundred-catty overlord spear in his hand as the most ordinary javelin, using all his strength to hurl it fiercely at the terrifying deep-sea monster, the Kraken, which was wantonly destroying the fleet!

"Whoosh——!!!"

The moment the black overlord spear left his hand, it turned into a bolt of black death-lightning that was almost impossible to catch with the naked eye!

Carrying the terrifying power capable of tearing the sky apart and an unstoppable, supreme domineering will, it instantly crossed a distance of thousands of zhang and pierced fiercely into a hill-sized, terrifying tentacle that was preparing to crush a frigate into fragments!

"Puchi——!!!"

A dull, loud sound like a sharp blade entering flesh!

That incredibly tough, terrifying tentacle, which even heavy artillery couldn't scratch, was actually pierced completely through the middle by this peerlessly domineering spear strike!

Black, viscous, oil-like, disgusting blood, reeking of a foul stench, gushed out from that huge wound like a bursting flood!

"Roar——!!!"

The terrifying deep-sea monster, the Kraken, let out a shrill roar filled with endless pain and anger!

For the first time, a look of "dread" appeared in its huge, single eye, which was like a blood-colored sun!

It gave up its attack on the other warships and instead turned all its dozens of intact, terrifying tentacles toward that human, who was as small as an ant, for daring to hurt it!

However, at this very moment, a more inconceivable scene occurred!

After throwing his overlord spear, Xiang Hao's iron-tower-like, towering physique leapt down from the flagship deck, which was dozens of zhang high!

He did not fall into the icy, bone-chilling, pitch-black sea!

Relying on his terrifying strength, which had already reached the Peak of a Martial Saint, and his supreme, domineering Protective Aura, which had already condensed into a tangible state, he actually walked on the waves of the turbulent sea!

Every step he took created a huge, terrifying vortex filled with explosive power on the violent sea surface!

He was like an undefeated God of War walking out of ancient mythology, actively heading towards the terrifying world-destroying beast capable of destroying the world!

One man and one monster, in this storm-tossed, pitch-black sea, unfolded a mythical, epic duel worthy of being recorded in history!

Xiang Hao's movement technique was fast to the extreme!

Like a golden bolt of lightning, he maneuvered with ease, dodging and weaving under the siege of dozens of terrifying tentacles that were like giant death pythons!

Every time, he was able to dodge the terrifying attacks—which could easily smash an ironclad ship into fragments—with a thrilling margin of a hair's breadth!

Then, he would seize the fleeting opportunity to smash his iron fist, completely wrapped in golden, domineering Protective Aura, fiercely into those terrifying tentacles!

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

Every punch could smash a huge, bloody, terrifying wound into those incredibly tough tentacles!

The terrifying deep-sea monster, the Kraken, was completely enraged by this tiny but incredibly troublesome human!

It let out a heaven-shaking roar!

A terrifying energy filled with an aura of destruction began to condense in its single, blood-colored eye!

The next moment, a black beam of energy, thicker and more terrifying than the thickest lightning, filled with the aura of corrosion and death, blasted out from its single eye and struck fiercely at Xiang Hao!

However, Xiang Hao did not dodge or evade!

A cold, disdainful sneer appeared on his handsome face, which was filled with dominance and arrogance!

"Comparing energy?!"

"Break for this commander!"

Xiang Hao let out a heaven-shaking roar!

He gathered all the domineering Protective Aura in his body without reservation onto his right fist!

A hundred-zhang-tall phantom of an emperor, wearing a black Dragon robe and filled with endless dominance and majesty, slowly emerged behind him!

"Overlord! World-Destroying Fist!"

Xiang Hao threw a punch!

The hundred-zhang-tall emperor phantom also threw a punch!

A golden, terrifying fist-aura filled with endless dominance and destructive will, like a dazzling meteor streaking across the sky, collided fiercely with that black beam of death energy!

"Rumble——!!!"

The terrifying energy explosion that erupted at that moment actually lifted the entire sea surface by a layer!

A terrifying, monstrous wave, hundreds of zhang high, swept wildly in all directions!

In this pure clash of energy, Xiang Hao did not fall behind in the slightest!

Taking advantage of the recoil from this terrifying explosion, his towering physique shot up into the sky like a cannonball leaving the chamber, instantly appearing above the mountain-like head of the deep-sea monster, the Kraken!

He pulled out the overlord spear that was still stuck in the broken tentacle!

Then, he poured all the remaining domineering Protective Aura in his body without reservation into this peerless divine weapon, which was already in tune with his heart!

"Wicked beast! Die for this commander!"

Xiang Hao let out a heaven-shaking roar!

Gripping the overlord spear, which had already been rendered a brilliant gold, with both hands, he plunged down like a golden meteor falling from the Nine Heavens, piercing fiercely into the huge, blood-colored single eye of the deep-sea monster, the Kraken, which was filled with terror and disbelief!

"Puchi——!!!"

The peerlessly domineering overlord spear, which had condensed all of Xiang Hao's life-long cultivation, pierced through the huge single eye without any suspense, and then penetrated out from the back of its huge head!

"Roar...!!!"

The terrifying deep-sea monster, the Kraken, let out the most shrill and desperate cry of pain in its entire life!

Its mountain-like, massive body struggled and rolled wildly on the sea surface, whipping up terrifying, heaven-destroying monstrous waves!

However, all of this was just a futile, deathbed struggle.

In the end, its huge body slowly ceased all movement.

The tyrannical and evil blood-colored light in its huge single eye also quickly faded away.

This terrifying world-destroying beast, which should only exist in myths and legends, had thus fallen at the hands of an undefeated God of War from the East!

With the death of the monster, the storm filling the sky also seemed to lose all its power and quickly subsided.

A ray of golden morning light pierced through the thick, dark clouds and shone upon the battered sea surface that had just experienced a mythical, epic battle.

It also shone upon that towering, god-and-demon-like figure holding a blood-stained black spear, standing proudly on the corpse of the mountain-like beast!

At that moment, all the surviving soldiers of the entire Southern Route Army fleet simultaneously put down everything in their hands and knelt down before that figure who seemed like a Heavenly God descending to earth!

Their eyes were filled with endless fanaticism and worship!

"Overlord! Eternal Victory!"

"Overlord! Eternal Victory!"

"Overlord! Eternal Victory!"

Cheers like mountains calling and seas roaring resounded across the entire sea surface!

After experiencing this sudden, huge crisis, although the entire Southern Route Army had suffered heavy losses, their morale was at an unprecedented high!

Xiang Hao had used his unparalleled personal martial power to inject the most powerful shot of adrenaline into all the soldiers!

After simply regrouping, Xiang Hao did not hesitate in the slightest and immediately issued the order to launch a beach landing on "Santiago," the largest port city in the south of the Western Empire, which was close at hand!

Countless small landing craft were lowered from the surviving ironclad ships like crucian carp crossing a river, carrying countless elite marine soldiers who had long been seething with anger and were howling to avenge their fallen comrades, rushing towards that unfamiliar coastline filled with the unknown and danger!

However, the Taixi Empire was clearly not going to let them land so easily.

On that vast white beach, it was already densely packed with solid fortifications consisting of Czech hedgehogs, barbed wire, and countless pillboxes and hidden bunkers!

Countless Taixi Empire garrison soldiers were hiding behind those sturdy fortifications, aiming their pre-loaded alchemical muskets and those pitch-black coastal cannons, which exuded an aura of death, at the landing craft rapidly approaching!

The very moment the first landing craft rushed onto the beachhead.

"Fire!"

An incredibly tragic and bloody slaughter on the beachhead began right then and there!

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

"Tat! Tat! Tat!"

Countless shells and bullets poured down like a torrential rain that cost nothing onto the landing craft that had just opened their hatches!

Countless Marine soldiers were torn into fragments filling the sky by that dense firepower before they even had a chance to step onto this foreign land!

The entire beachhead was instantly stained a shocking, blood-red!

Just as the first wave of the Marines was about to be completely suppressed by the enemy's fierce firepower, and even showed signs of collapse, a roar filled with endless dominance and Battle Intent exploded in everyone's ears like a thunderclap!

"A bunch of trash! Get out of the way for this Commander!"

Xiang Hao's burly figure, like an iron tower, was the first to leap out from a landing craft that was rushing at the very front!

He held the overlord spear, which was still dripping with the black, viscous blood of a giant demon, and like a humanoid Vicious Beast that had walked out of the primordial era, he bore the dense hail of bullets that could tear steel into pieces and launched a desperate charge toward the enemy's seemingly impregnable line of defense!

He led the charge!

He was the first to rush onto that blood-stained beachhead, completely shrouded in blood and death!

The overlord spear in his hand whirled like a high-speed rotating windmill, easily blocking and deflecting all the bullets and shells fired at him!

Then, he forcibly tore a hideous, huge gap in the enemy's airtight defense line, which was composed of countless bunkers and firepower points!

"Kill—!!!"

After seeing their commander's invincible figure, who descended like a Heavenly God, the Marines' bloodlust and courage, which had been suppressed to the limit, erupted like a volcano at this moment!

They followed behind Xiang Hao like an unstoppable black torrent, surging fiercely toward the enemy's defense line, which had already fallen into chaos and panic due to Xiang Hao's appearance!

After a tragic and bloody hand-to-hand battle, the Southern Route Army finally successfully captured this blood-stained beachhead position!

They successfully opened up a crucial second battlefield for the subsequent main force!

And that commander's flag belonging to Xiang Hao, embroidered with a hideous black Tyrannosaurus, flew high for the first time on this foreign land full of unknowns and challenges, facing the sea breeze filled with the scent of blood!

Time, like a ruthless wheel, crushed over the bloody, mangled battlefields, countless broken families, and the already overburdened national strength of two massive Empires, slowly driving into the deep autumn of the 17th year of Qiyuan.

This epoch-making national war, which later historians called the "War of Continental Destiny," had already lasted for four full years.

Four years, for the long river of history, was but a fleeting moment in the snap of a finger.

However, for everyone who personally experienced this unprecedented, cruel, and bloody war, these four years seemed so long, so agonizing, and filled with endless pain and despair.

Although the Wu Dynasty's three armies had paid an unimaginably heavy price, they had all successfully gained a foothold on this strange, foreign land and achieved a series of brilliant battle results.

Under the leadership of Du Wei and Xue Biao, the Northern Route Army had long since completely cleared the entire northern province of the Taixi Empire, planting the Wu Dynasty Dragon Flag, embroidered with a hideous black Dragon, in every corner of that frozen land.

Under the personal command of Commander Zhao Yu, the Central Route Army, although severely damaged in the Battle of Fengxi Plains, had successfully captured several key military towns in the eastern war zone of the Taixi Empire after half a year of rest and replenishment, steadily pushing the front line forward by nearly a thousand miles.

The Southern Route Army, led by the invincible personal martial prowess of the "Overlord" Xiang Hao, who descended like a Heavenly God, was even more unstoppable. Like a sharp, red-hot knife, it plunged fiercely into the Taixi Empire's wealthy but relatively weakly defended soft underbelly, capturing cities and strongholds along the way, sweeping through everything, and almost single-handedly completely destroyed nearly one-third of the Taixi Empire's economic lifeline!

From a strategic standpoint, the Wu Dynasty undoubtedly occupied the absolute initiative and advantage.

However, the war did not present an overwhelming, one-sided situation as Gao Feng and his Supreme War Cabinet had expected before the war.

On the contrary, as the front lines continued to stretch and the war deepened, the Wu Dynasty's three armies all inadvertently fell into a suffocating bitter struggle and stalemate.

The Taixi Empire, this ancient theocratic Empire with fanatical religious faith as its foundation, when facing the huge crisis of national subjugation and extinction, exploded with astonishing war potential, and that kind of near-pathological, fanatical resistance will of the entire population, far exceeded everyone's imagination!

Although their regular army was retreating step by step on the front lines and suffering heavy losses.

However, their people, under the inflammatory incitement of the Church of Light, spontaneously organized countless large and small so-called "Holy Light Resistance Armies."

Men, women, young and old, everyone was a soldier!

Relying on those solid city fortifications that had been managed for centuries, as well as the divine magic arrays full of sanctity and strangeness jointly set up by countless priests, they resisted step by step, not yielding an inch of land!

They would even frantically tie alchemical explosives to themselves to perish together with the Wu Dynasty's war golem!

They would dump deadly poison into water sources and spread plagues into the Wu Dynasty's military camps!

They used every possible means!

They had long since completely fallen into a state of irrational madness!

This near-suicidal, fanatical resistance caused unimaginable huge trouble and casualties for the Wu Dynasty's three armies!

The Wu Dynasty's front line was stretched too thin.

The long logistical supply lines were constantly facing crazy harassment and sabotage from those elusive resistance armies.

The source of troops on the front lines also began to show huge gaps due to the tragic street warfare and siege warfare that were like bottomless pits.

The entire Western expedition enterprise seemed to have fallen into a huge quagmire of flesh and blood. Although it was moving forward slowly but firmly, every small step forward required paying a heartbreakingly heavy price!

War, this terrifying prehistoric beast that devoured countless lives and wealth, after raging for four full years, finally began to bare its hideous fangs at the Wu Dynasty, this seemingly incomparably powerful, massive war machine.

Divine Capital, Forbidden City, Ministry of Revenue.

Late at night, it was still brightly lit.

The Minister of Revenue, who was also the current female Prime Minister, Li Qingzhao, was rubbing her eyebrows, which had become sore from long hours of high-intensity work, with a tired face.

Countless glaring silver strands had quietly crept into her once black and shiny hair, she knew not when.

Her beautiful eyes, which were originally bright and moving, full of wisdom and Spiritual Qi, were now filled with bloodshot veins that looked somewhat hideous due to excessive fatigue.

In front of her, on the huge desk made of precious Golden Phoebe wood, were piled up thick ledgers and memorials like small hills.

Every ledger recorded astronomical figures of terrifying war expenses that would be enough to bankrupt any ordinary small country.

"Prime Minister Li, this is the latest military expenditure application just sent back from the front line."

A Ministry of Revenue official, who also looked haggard, cautiously handed an urgent memorial to Li Qingzhao, saying in a hoarse voice, "Commander Zhao requests that the imperial court urgently add 30 million taels of silver in military funding to replenish the combat losses of the 'Thor' Legion and to compensate the families of the fallen soldiers."

"Thirty million taels..."

After hearing this number, Li Qingzhao's heart, already somewhat numb from being tortured by countless astronomical figures, couldn't help but twitch violently.

She slowly raised her head, looking at the trusted subordinate who had followed her for many years with her beautiful, bloodshot eyes, her voice as hoarse as two rusty iron plates rubbing against each other.

"Official Wang, tell me, how much silver is left in our Ministry of Revenue's national treasury now?"

Upon hearing this, Official Wang's face revealed a bitter and helpless, miserable smile.

He swallowed hard, and answered in a dry voice: "Reporting to Prime Minister Li, if this 30 million taels of military funding is allocated, then all the remaining liquid funds in our national treasury combined, I am afraid, will not even be able to scrape together one million taels."

"One million taels..."

Li Qingzhao slowly closed her eyes.

Her slender, fair fingers, because of excessive force, snapped the precious purple-hair brush in her hand into two pieces.

War is fought not only by the military power at the front, but also by the national strength in the rear!

And the most direct manifestation of national strength is money!

These four years, to support this unprecedented, massive war of annihilation, the entire Wu Dynasty's national treasury had long been completely hollowed out!

Although the Wu Dynasty's industry and commerce had achieved unprecedented development under the series of forward-looking policies supported by Gao Feng.

Although the annual tax revenue was growing at a terrifying geometric rate.

However, this growth rate still lagged far behind the terrifying consumption rate at the front, which was like a bottomless pit!