Now that he knew that all the energy of the Ming Dynasty was involved, and there was no way to deal with him anymore, Zhong Yu would naturally let go of his hands and feet to fight.
In the past, because the opponent was threatened by the nuclear power of an eighth-level master, Zhong Yu was timid in everything he did and did not dare to make too big a move, so as not to arouse a sense of crisis in the Ming Dynasty, so he directly sent out masters to suppress him.
But now the eighth-level masters from the Ming Dynasty have been attracted by the same-level masters from the Jin Dynasty and cannot make any moves.
Moreover, the Ming Dynasty had also reached a critical moment of annihilation. All its energy was focused on guarding the capital and defending the northern frontier, and could no longer take care of the defense of other provinces.
After all, regardless of whether it is the eastern, southern or western provinces, losing one or two provinces will not endanger the survival of the Ming Dynasty at all. But if the Liaodong Province to the north of the capital allows the enemy to drive straight down and surround the imperial capital, then the Ming Dynasty will really be at the point of destruction.
Which one is more important, no matter how stupid the emperor of the Ming Dynasty was, he could still figure it out clearly.
In today's world, it is not that simple for a city to be called an imperial capital.
It must meet several important conditions.
With a population of more than 10 million, it is powerful enough to defend an eighth-level city protection formation, has enough earth vein dragon energy, and can control the terrain of countless surrounding areas.
These conditions are the basics of an imperial capital and the conditions for a dynasty to guard the country.
Basically, an imperial capital occupies 1/10 of the essence of the country. It is an indivisible and important territory of a country, and the key points are naturally self-evident.
If the Ming Dynasty really lost its imperial capital, it would mean that it had lost its legitimacy, and all the northern provinces would also be lost. Even the eastern and western provinces are not sure whether they can be preserved. In the end, it would be good to be able to shrink to a corner in the south.
As for rebuilding an imperial capital, it would be unthinkable without its hundreds of millions of people. The already broken Ming Dynasty and the southern region with tens of millions of people still have this ability.
Therefore, for Zhong Yu, the threat of the Ming Dynasty has completely left, and will not appear again for at least 34 years.
For him, what he needs to think about now is how to take advantage of the weakness of the Ming Dynasty to swallow more territory.
And during this period of time, he should develop and strengthen his own power. The most important thing is to cultivate his own strong men above level six, so that he can gain a firm foothold in this world.
When the Jin Empire broke through the Ming Dynasty's defense line and directed its troops towards the imperial capital, two months had passed since Zhong Yu captured the four eastern provinces.
In the past two months, Zhong Yu began to recruit troops on a large scale and rectified the local bureaucracy. He expelled all corrupt officials that he did not trust or had a very bad reputation, and then replaced them with the officials he had trained. Those trusted direct officials came to power.
Although many officials rebelled in the process and caused some minor troubles to Zhong Yu, after suppressing all these troubles and replacing them with officials he trusted, Zhong Yu's ruling area was thoroughly sorted out and controlled. Deeper and deeper.
The rectification of officials was going very well, and with the big change of officialdom, the people in these four provinces all praised each other and believed that Zhong Yu's force was a good government that truly cared about the people.
However, in terms of joining the army, the progress was extremely unsatisfactory.
The specific reason is that although the people recognize Zhong Yu's rule, they do not think that Zhong Yu's power can really take a firm foothold here and continue for a long time.
In the Ming Dynasty, even an ordinary citizen knew clearly what the meaning of an empire was and what kind of powerful power it represented.
The power to destroy the heaven and earth, move mountains and fill the sea, and suppress everything cannot be resisted by Zhong Yu's large army alone. It already belongs to immortals and gods and transcends the existence of mortals.
In particular, powerful families and local sects from all over the world see this very clearly, so they are also the ones who watch with cold eyes. Maybe they are secretly laughing at Zhong Yu for not knowing what to say.
However, all this changed with the news that the Jin Empire won the war in northern Xinjiang, that the Ming Dynasty was in danger, and that the capital was in danger.
Judging from the territory of the Ming Dynasty, the eastern part is the more than 3,000 miles of boundless mountains and forests occupied by the Demon King of Huangshan Mountain. It is the most natural and reliable absolute defense, and it is impossible for other countries to invade. Five of the seven inland provinces of the Ming Dynasty were eastern provinces, which shows the importance and security of the east.
This is why Zhong Yucai had just occupied the four eastern provinces, and the imperial army couldn't wait to send troops to suppress the rebellion. Even if he risked the crisis of unstable rule across the country, he had to grit his teeth and send out 200,000 troops to suppress it.
This is because the eastern provinces are the capital of the imperial court. Without the huge armies maintained by the imperial court in the eastern provinces on the border, they may collapse at any time.
As for the other three provinces of the Ming Dynasty, they all bordered other countries and were threatened at any time. They were constantly at war and could not develop stably at all.
Now the Ming Dynasty was stretched thin, and the remaining defenders were extremely weak and could not stop Zhong Yu's army from attacking, let alone counterattack.
This situation means that the country established by Zhong Yu is not a short-lived dynasty. It is very likely to last for decades, and it is not impossible to even directly replace the Ming Dynasty.
With these conditions, the aristocratic families and local sects from all over the world who were watching, as well as the timid people below, became completely alert.
Instead of sitting on the sidelines in the past, everyone actively joined Zhong Yu's forces, causing the recruitment station under his command to be full of personnel.
After March, the war in the north of the Ming Dynasty became increasingly fierce. More manpower and material resources were mobilized to the northern battlefield to form more troops to resist and counterattack the Jin Dynasty's attacks.
In the four provinces under Zhong Yu's command, the training of the new army has finally come to an end.
The rise of every new force represents a reshuffle of local forces.
The same is true for Zhong Yu's new empire that has entered the four eastern provinces.
Countless big families, big landowners, and sects that represented the fundamental forces of the imperial court fell and faced the fate of being purged.
Countless family sects have also emerged that have remained neutral and even followed the trend.
As a result, Zhong Yu recruited a total of 300,000 new troops from four provinces this time, all of whom were soldiers with level three or above strength.
Coupled with Zhong Yu's remaining troops, the number of his army exceeded 740,000.
Excluding the 80,000 left-behind legions, these armies were finally able to produce 420,000 mobile troops, which served as his support and capital for the subsequent siege of cities and territories.
A new round of expansion is about to begin.
(End of chapter)