The Mericia rebels were utterly annihilated, their leaders arrested, and the imperial troops returned to Fog City to thunderous applause and a rapturous welcome-well, all of that existed only in the imagination.
Although he had a few complaints about General Hao, Li Wei had to admit that military operations were sometimes a thankless business for a great power.
Win, and everyone took it for granted.
Our Empire was so powerful now. How could it possibly fail to put down one tiny rebellion on the frontier?
Lose... how the fuck did you even manage that?
Yang Guang's three campaigns against Goguryeo had fought the Sui Dynasty out of existence, while the battle at Tumu Fortress had sent an entire country into decline. Sometimes, being the big country fighting a small one really did come with enormous pressure.
Even now, if his own country struggled to beat those monkeys to the southeast, Li Wei would be annoyed too.
The operation General Hao had painstakingly planned received only a few lines in the Empire's newspapers: "Imperial forces successfully suppressed the Mericia rebels. Their leaders and principal members have all been arrested."
It did not even make the front page.
That was perfectly in keeping with the imperial public's attitude. How hard could it be to suppress a rebellion in Mericia, that miserable backwater full of unruly troublemakers? Once the Empire's army marched out, victory was bound to be effortless.
So the civilian press barely covered General Hao and the others, dismissing them in a handful of lines.
Li Wei's actions during the campaign, on the other hand, received lavish coverage.
For one thing, what Li Wei had done in Mericia really was unexpected. He had stormed into the Continental Parliament alone and, before those "Mericia barbarians," calmly arrested the rebel leaders in the