The World Online

Chapter 922 – The World is Changing

The moment Somalia was destroyed, the world was stunned.

In America, which was connected to the Atlantic Ocean, Jack stood at the highest point on the Free City city wall. He looked into the distance, not saying any words. He wished that Free City was the one with such command and might throughout the entire world.

“Soon!”

Jack muttered as his eyes emitted a certain glow.

Free City had smoothly upgraded to Capital City. Not long later, he would establish the 2nd dynasty. The day he established the country would be the day Free City started their conquest.

Country wars would not be a solo by the Great Xia Dynasty.

…

Jack, William, Pushkin, Honda Keisuke, Durava, Park Wins, Henry…

Within the world, every ambitious Lord was motivated by the Great Xia Dynasty, and all of them quickened their steps to upgrade to duke.

The world stage had a place for them.

Along with the 5th year of Gaia drawing to a close, a more open and chaotic world was arriving. Lord who missed this chance would lose the opportunity to control the world stage.

Similarly, in front of Great Xia, there were many difficult opponents.

************

Gaia 4th year, 8th month, 5th day, Somalia.

Ouyang Shuo led the three thousand Divine Martial Guards and arrived at Mogadishu.

Yesterday, the post-war matters of Somalia went really well, and they did not even need to use the Boulder Army. The six player Lords were teleported away. Without their Lord, the troops also surrendered.

Along with the Somalia King being fished out by the dragon blood war cavalry, the uncertain Somalia guards surrendered.

The war was over, and the peace was restored. The people slowly returned to welcome their new Lord.

Di Qing ordered the troops to open the granary and distribute some of the grain to the people. Looking at the mountains of flour, the civilians all forgot about their old king.

“So vicious! So much grain, yet he actually made us starve.”

The furious crowd clamored for the execution of the old king. Obviously, Di Qing would not give in to their wishes, as only the king could decide the punishment.

The actions of the Somalia King made it really easy for the Great Xia King to raise the people’s sentiment.

…

Along with Ouyang Shuo, there was the Privy Court training department director Gao Shun and the old Xingzhou Governor, Pei Ju. He was called here because he had received a new appointment.

The Imperial Court decreed that the Somalia Province would be set up, and the governing area Mogadishu would have four prefectures. Pei Mo would be the Provincial Governor, and Friendship City Mayor Gu Xiuwen would become the Xingzhou Governor.

Pei Ju had taken charge of Xingzhou Prefecture for 15 months, defending the Malacca Straits. He greatly improved the trade in Xingzhou Prefecture and maintained the relationships with the ASEAN states.

Morocco Province and Xingzhou Prefecture had similar strategic positions and surroundings. The only difference was that it had more land and faced more enemies.

Hence, moving Pei Ju over to become the Somalia Provincial Governor was a good choice.

As for Gu Xiuwen, since Beihai Village to Beihai City to Friendship City, he had always been in charge of a city next to the ocean.

Ouyang Shuo had high hopes for these young officials that had been with him all the way.

As for Gao Shun, he was in charge of the military reorganization. Gao Shun was good at training troops. Since he was appointed, he had remodeled the reserve forces and the Garrison Division.

Regretfully, as Friendship City was too far away, he did not get the chance to remodel the Garrison Division here.

As a result, they performed so badly during the pirate attack. Ouyang Shuo was really disappointed and even sacked the Major General in charge.

Gao Shun was also one of Du Ruhui’s main helpers during the past few military reorganizations.

This time, it would be his first time taking charge, and this showed that he had earned the trust of Ouyang Shuo.

Ouyang Shuo had three reasons for this.

First, the number of war prisoners here was relatively less.

Based on Di Qing’s report, there were a total of 120 thousand prisoners in Somalia. Out of these, 15 thousand were random natives, 65 thousand were guards, and 35 thousand were the territory troops.

Compared to the 300 thousand in Morocco, the number was much less. This was mainly due to the lack of population in Somalia and not their strategy.

If one really wanted to calculate, there were not many fights in the Battle of Somalia, apart from the ones at the two wings. Hence, neither side suffered that many casualties.

If one removed those soldiers that did not pass and also took into account the troops used to replenish the Somalia Formation, the Atlantic Squadron, and the dragon blood war cavalry, the actual number was 80 thousand.

Picking out the elites, one could at most form a legion.

If one set up Garrison Divisions based on the four prefectures of land here, not many troops would remain. It was like they had fought the war for nothing.

This was also the second reason behind Ouyang Shuo choosing Gao Shun.

After all considerations, Ouyang Shuo raised a huge idea, which was that apart from the Somalia Formation, there would be no Garrison Divisions. The defense of the province would be handled by the formation.

There were many benefits to this.

The best part was that this would cut down on half the soldier numbers and greatly reduced financial burden.

Somalia had less than two million people. Hence, if they set up four Garrison Divisions, if one added in the Somalia Formation, they would need to take care of 154 thousand troops.

To a province that was lacking in economic development, this burden was a little too much.

The problem that needed to be answered was whether the Somalia Formation could replace the Garrison Divisions. After thinking, Ouyang Shuo said yes.

Since the day the formation was established, from its name, it was already different from the legion corps and belonged to a special group.

Unless they were forced to, the Imperial Court would not use the Somalia Formation to go on crusades.

This also meant that the Somalia Formation would be housed in Somalia. It was not like the Dragon Legion Corps, which might go on expeditions at any moment. Since that was the case, the use of a Garrison Division would be greatly reduced, and they were not needed.

Having a formation camping there and still needing Garrison Divisions was a waste of manpower. Somalia just needed a good reserve force.

Du Ruhui and the others agreed to his suggestion.

The matter was settled like that.

As for Morocco, which was similar, the four Garrison Divisions that were already built were not removed. They temporarily remained the same.

First, Morocco had a huge population, and the pressure of feeding them was not as great as it was here. Secondly, there was the problem of Algeria supporting the construction of a rogue nation.

When the Great Xia Dynasty eventually fought Algeria, the four divisions could gather up and form a War Fighting Legion.

Apart from that, Ouyang Shuo also planned to change the other Garrison Divisions in other provinces.

It was not that he wanted to remove them all at once because that was impossible.

It was best to start from the inland prefectures, as those had pretty much no wars and had lesser responsibilities. They could be made into Garrison Regiments to reduce expenditure.

The ones at the border would remain as Garrison Divisions to assist the frontlines at any moment.

As for the specifics, Ouyang Shuo let Gao Shun be in charge of making the training department come up with a specific plan.

…

The third reason for why he chose Gao Shun was that he hoped Gao Shun could lead the training department to play a more obvious role in terms of future military organization.

Even to say that the training department would become the one in charge.

The War Fighting Legion that would be made would replace the elites of the dragon, tiger, and Leopard Legion Corps to be used to form the 4th Guards Legion.

The Battle of Somalia revealed another weakness of the Guards Legion Corps.

They currently only had one infantry legion, which was trapped in the imperial city. Using the dragon blood war legion to help attack Somalia exposed the weakness of cavalry in crusades.

Hence, the 4th legion would be a mixed legion, and it would also be equipped with a Flying Squad and a firearm squadron.

As for the choice of Legion General, Ouyang Shuo was not sure yet.

In the Great Xia Army, only a few of the famous generals had not been promoted to Legion General.

Amongst which, Cao Gui and Wei Zhang were the deputy Legion Generals of the 1st legion that they were in, so they were pretty much Legion Generals.

As such, there were only the four Three Kingdoms generals left.

The Great Xia Army was filled with stars, and its military scale was 10 times or even 20 to 30 times more than other territories.

After these few rounds of military expansion, their general reserves were being used up. Along with them not gaining anything from the Battle of Fei River, this problem became exposed.

One War Fighting Legion, 70 thousand troops. In any dynasty, this would be a huge force. Naturally, Ouyang Shuo had to give it to a capable commander.

Especially the Legion General of the Guards Legion; the Legion General must be one that everyone looked up to. If one let a normal general take up the position, even the other legion corps would have problems with it.

That was because in the eyes of the Great Xia Army soldiers, the Guards Legion Corps represented the best of the best.