Kusakawa Akio's face turned green!
Although his son was a good-for-nothing, he was still his own flesh and blood, so he was sent to Eight Gods Island. He never expected that this kid would cause such a rift with his father.
He took a deep breath and said in a deep voice, "Hmph, I, the Great General, have long since expelled Saemon from the family, so whatever he does is none of my business. I, Kusakawa Akio, have rendered great service to the Yamata Nation, and have faced death several times, not to surrender to the enemy."
Goodness, this guy is ruthless.
Upon hearing this, everyone's faces stiffened. This guy could even abandon his own son; no wonder he could become a great general.
However, as Kusakawa Akio said, he had made great contributions to the Yamata Nation, and it was impossible for him to blame his father just because his son had an accident.
His contributions over the past few years have been genuine; he has shed blood and sweat for the Yamata Nation and would never betray his country to the enemy.
"That makes sense, General, you are innocent!"
The group immediately changed their strategy. This general was not someone to be trifled with; if they couldn't kill him, they should give up. Otherwise, if they failed to suppress him this time, they would all suffer.
Jingbian Yilang didn't say much, but gave Kusakawa Akio a deep look before continuing to rest.
Cough cough!
At this moment, Emperor Muren stepped forward and broke the dispute between the two sides.
His warning gaze swept over the two men, and he said solemnly, "There's no need to say more. I believe in the General's loyalty to the Yamata Nation. Now that a foreign enemy has invaded, we need to unite against them and absolutely cannot allow ourselves to fall into chaos first."
The Great Liang is so powerful; if internal strife were to occur, the Yamata Nation would inevitably perish.
"I am guilty!"
Kusakawa Akio took a deep breath and directly admitted his mistake, thus getting through this ordeal.
Jingbian Yilang was quite frank. Although he disliked Kusakawa Akio, in their current isolated and helpless situation, the idea of mobilizing the entire population to fight was indeed the only option.
Furthermore, this conscription will allow the Jingbian Clan to gain more influence in the military, which is a rare opportunity.
Thinking of this, he smiled and said, "The General has rendered meritorious service to the country; how could he do something that would harm the national interest? From now on, let's not talk about this anymore. Now that we have a formidable enemy at hand, we must unite against it!"
As the general said, since the enemy has more troops, let's also recruit soldiers.
The enemy has a long supply line, but we also have our own advantages; this is our territory.
Recruit soldiers if you want!
Everyone nodded in agreement. Without allies, they had no choice but to bite the bullet and go for it.
However, they really weren't used to giving up this superior environment and living a nomadic life, so they were determined to give it their all.
With manpower and troops, our side will always have the advantage.
Just then, the sound of rapid hoofbeats came from outside, heading straight for the palace.
The sound of horses' hooves caused a slight change in the expressions of everyone in the palace!
Warhorses are hard to come by on the island; they're usually only used for relaying military intelligence. It seems another message has arrived, and it's probably not good news.
"Report! Our rear is under attack! General Yue Jin of the Great Liang has led 80,000 troops to conquer nearly 70 islands, including Great Joy and Map, and is heading straight for our Iai Island."
"Report! We are under attack from the east. General Yu Jin of the Great Liang has led 80,000 troops to conquer nearly 80 islands, including Gladness and Wasteland, and is heading straight for our Iai Island."
"Report! We have encountered a major enemy attack in our central region. General Sun Jian is leading 100,000 troops on a rapid advance, heading straight for our Iai Island!"
"..."
"..."
Five intelligence reports in a row plunged the once hopeful court into a deathly silence; the enemy had already penetrated deep into their territory.
The Emperor was extremely gloomy. He then slammed his fist on the table and gritted his teeth, saying, "What a Great Liang! What a Sun Jian!"
Five armies are targeting my capital; they intend to strike right at my heart!
If this continues, they might just march straight to Iai Island.
"Damn it, this is a huge problem!" Jingbian Yilang frowned and muttered to himself.
Iai Island is the island where the royal city is located. The fact that the enemy's five armies are all aimed at Iai Island is self-evident. They are preparing to encircle us directly, and their wolfish ambitions are obvious.
If this place is surrounded, Iai Island will probably be completely finished, and it will face all sorts of troubles.
Kusakawa Akio frowned and muttered, "How could it be so fast? Has the front line completely collapsed? Then the Yamata Nation doesn't have much time left."
Although the Yamata Nation claims to have more than 4,000 islands, many of them are actually uninhabited, and enemies will soon be able to invade.
"Conscription is urgent; we must not let the enemy break in!" The Emperor nodded solemnly.
Now that we've reached a life-or-death moment, if we don't fight with all our might now, we'll never have the chance to do so again.
However, this time the recruited army must be firmly under my control. When the time comes, I can easily suppress both the generals and ministers.
He looked at Fengzhong Longzi to the side and said in a deep voice, " Fengzhong Longzi, do you think 600,000 can hold off the enemy?"
Fengzhong Longzi is his confidant, possessing strong military skills and insight. He previously made the decisive decision to abandon some islands and concentrate superior forces to hold off the enemy. Such a talent is worth making great use of.
Moreover, he had personally experienced the enemy's attack, making him the best candidate.
Everyone's thoughts raced. Was the Emperor planning to give Fengzhong Longzi an important position? Why was he asking him about this matter instead of the General?
"Not enough, we need at least 800,000!" Fengzhong Longzi took a deep breath and said in a deep voice.
"Eight hundred thousand?"
Everyone's pupils contracted; this was an absolutely terrifying number. Could the Yamata Nation support so many soldiers?
Even the Emperor hesitated; this was simply insane. Combined with the previous troops, they now comprised about one-tenth of the population of the Yamata Nation.
This is practically a total mobilization of the entire population into war, putting immense financial pressure on the Yamata Nation and potentially crippling it.
Seeing the Emperor's hesitation, Fengzhong Longzi added fuel to the fire.
"Your Majesty, this is by no means an exaggeration."
"The army of Great Liang is extremely powerful, especially since they launched a five-pronged attack on the Yamata Nation while maintaining coordinated movements among themselves. This allows them to support each other, so if we fight them individually, we will suffer heavy losses."
"To crush their attack, we must first concentrate our superior forces to annihilate two or three of their groups. Only then can we be absolutely certain of success!"
"As for the financial issues, they are actually not a big problem. To annihilate these 400,000 -Great Liang army, the losses will probably be considerable!"
His eyes were filled with murderous intent. He could no longer afford to be sentimental, or everything would be for naught. The strength of the Great Liang Yamata Nation could match.
Then we'll have no choice but to fight tooth and nail.