Chapter Thirty-Nine: Occupying England

With the Earl of Glamorgan bringing his opulent life to a dreary end, the outcome of the battle for the English capital became increasingly clear.

At this point, the fifty thousand revolutionary troops who possessed any real combat capability were no longer organized units. The final report the Earl received before his suicide stated that the last remaining elite revolutionary force of ten thousand men, attempting to turn the tide, had been shattered by a few infantry regiments of the Song Empire.

This was the reason for the Earl’s despair and subsequent suicide; without the support and emergency intervention of the core elite revolutionary troops, the disorganized and undisciplined armed mobs were easily fragmented by the Song army, surrounded, and left to await their fate.

With the situation beyond redemption, those elites with connections either fled or surrendered, while the few who remained followed the Earl’s example—either taking their own lives or leading their troops to be slaughtered by the Song forces. Facts proved that without government officers to organize them, armed mobs—no matter how numerous—could not withstand the assault of a professional army.

Shortly after the Earl of Glamorgan’s death, the Song army’s offensive shifted from a siege to a mop-up operation. Most English units had completely disintegrated, but what troubled the Song commanders was that the sporadic resistance from the civilians in the capital never truly ceased.

After more than a month of fighting, the vast majority of the armed mobs, having witnessed the terrifying combat prowess of the Song army, no longer harbored hopes of victory. Following the total annihilation of the revolutionary elite, large-scale desertions occurred in the capital, and these deserters were fortunate enough to escape with their lives. After all, with the officers having vanished, there was no one left to enforce battlefield discipline.

Furthermore, Sun Li displayed a rare moment of "humanity." He ordered his troops surrounding the capital to turn a blind eye to the fleeing militiamen. These troops, terrified by the overwhelming power of the Song army, were essentially natural propaganda machines for the Song Empire’s strength. Why kill them? Once these armed mobs scattered in disgrace across the English island, the invincible prestige of the Song military would resonate through the minds of every Englishman.

This would undoubtedly make the subsequent Song offensive much easier and drastically reduce casualties. Sun Li had no desire to engage in further urban warfare; to wipe out these amateur garrison forces, his hundred-thousand-strong elite army had suffered nearly fifty thousand casualties. Sun Li was utterly exasperated by the lethal efficiency of the weapons of this era. If only he had rocket launchers, mortars, or large-caliber field artillery, these Englishmen—devoid of any true national will—would have long since been terrified into kneeling and surrendering. Of course, that was just Sun Li’s own wishful thinking.

As the Song army proceeded with the "demolition" of the English capital regardless of the cost, negative repercussions began to surface. In stark contrast to the armed mobs fleeing in defeat, a group of "urbanites" with an immense attachment to their homeland emerged. Seeing the Song soldiers acting as if they were members of a "demolition squad," these civilians, possessing a deep sentimental attachment to the land their ancestors had inhabited for generations, were truly enraged.

And when one says "truly," it means these people were genuinely willing to sacrifice their lives. For the first time, Song soldiers witnessed humans rushing into their formations while strapped with explosives. These people were truly in the depths of despair; if they could not live, they would ensure these invaders would not leave alive either.

The smooth occupation of the city was once again dragged into brutal fighting by these sudden "terrorists." The Song soldiers, who had been easily harvesting prisoners, were now forced to cautiously inspect every captive for "insecure factors." Although the entire English capital was essentially under Song control, the intermittent sounds of gunpowder explosions served as a constant reminder to Sun Li that the fighting on the English island was far from over.

Faced with a situation where the city had been reduced to ruins and remained filled with desperate "powder kegs," a normal country would have long since withdrawn. For one, such a ruined city held little value for an occupier; for another, playing hide-and-seek with a bunch of dangerous, unhinged fanatics was—well, it tested the soldiers' nerves.

Fortunately, the Song Empire’s "system-generated" soldiers were the elite of the elite, the abnormal among the abnormal—and by that, I mean their willpower was abnormal. Every Song soldier possessed a heart willing to die for Sun Li; they would have no qualms about strapping explosives to themselves to blow up the enemy, let alone dealing with a few enemy explosive packs.

Thus, even with heavy losses, the mop-up operation proceeded in an orderly fashion. The only result of these suicides was to increase the casualties of the Song soldiers, while also giving these system-generated troops an eye-opening lesson. At the very least, they now had a living textbook on how to turn themselves into powder kegs to inflict maximum damage on the enemy should they ever find themselves in a desperate situation.

For Sun Li, who possessed the "system bug," any sacrifice was meaningful as long as victory was achieved. To put it more cruelly, Sun Li was merely consuming a few gold coin resources. Of course, Sun Li would never think of it that way himself. He made every effort to collect the belongings of each fallen soldier and buried them in the newly established mausoleums for the loyal and heroic on the conquered lands. As for the wounded, they were retired to second-line units to serve as instructors and managers. These soldiers, tempered in the carnage, would undoubtedly allow the Song Empire’s local garrisons to reach their maximum combat potential.

Standing amidst the ruins of the English capital, watching the smoke-filled battlefield in the distance, Sun Li resolved that after conquering the English island, he would turn this place into a giant mausoleum to bury the tens of thousands of Song soldiers who had died for him. Transforming the enemy’s capital into a mausoleum—one must admit, Sun Li certainly had a flair for ideas. It seems that in the future, if the enemies of the Song Empire find themselves without hope of victory, they should think twice before launching such "total national resistance."

In this manner, with the constant influx of recruits from Sun Li’s rear, the holdouts in the English capital were finally cleared out. This world-renowned urban siege demonstrated to every nation on the European continent the absolute resolve of the Song Empire: if you truly wish to fight until mutual destruction, I, Sun Li, will accompany you to the very end. Therefore, war should ideally follow normal procedures; dragging ordinary civilians into urban defense battles is simply too cruel and leaves no room for retreat.

Presumably, few rulers of this era would dare to do such a thing. Even if they wanted to, with the English as a living cautionary tale, it was hard to say whether the common folk would be willing to go mad along with their leaders. The reason the Earl of Glamorgan and his ilk did this was simple: first, Sun Li did not accept their overtures, demanding unconditional surrender; second, did they really think Victoria was broad-minded enough to ignore the capitalists who had pushed the House of Norman to the brink? With Victoria’s methods, if these capitalists had surrendered unconditionally, they would have been better off running away—at least fleeing allowed them to keep a bit of their gold and wealth.

With the House of Norman having surrendered to the Song, the role of these English capitalists was, truthfully, not very significant. After all, the foundations of the House of Norman were far more solid than those of these capitalists. Consequently, less than a month after the battle for the English capital ended, the Song army, having replenished its losses, spread out across the entire island. This expansion, with the full cooperation of the House of Norman, proceeded very smoothly.

Those hostile capitalists either fled or were annihilated along with the English capital. The remaining small fry, deterred by the sight of the Song army leveling a national capital, rarely dared to resist with such suicidal ignorance. As for the common folk, who had yet to taste the fruits of the revolution, they developed an uncontrollable sense of fear toward the brutal Song Empire, fueled by the vivid and harrowing descriptions provided by the fleeing armed mobs.

Indeed, it was fear. These Song soldiers were a group of invincible demons! Fighting them resulted in the most miserable of deaths. Very well, the Song army was, once again, demonized in the wake of their continuous victories.

However, these were minor, irrelevant issues. Sun Li’s subsequent advance was extremely smooth—so smooth, in fact, that it left the leaders of the European nations deeply disappointed. If only there had been a few more urban sieges; comparing the Song army’s losses in the English capital to any further engagements, they had hoped that after a few such battles, Sun Li would no longer have the strength to expand. Since it was the English who were dying, the monarchs of the European continent felt no heartache at all.

Unfortunately, such a brutal battle of annihilation was a one-time occurrence. As mentioned before, once a nation’s capital is gone, the hope in the hearts of its people is effectively extinguished.

During the grand wedding of Sun Li and Victoria, the English island ushered in the glorious rule of the Song Empire—or so the Song Ministry of Propaganda claimed. At this point, the thoughts of the English people were of no concern to anyone.

Because of the stubborn resistance of the English, Sun Li once again had a perfect excuse for plunder. He did not squeeze the lower-class civilians much—there wasn't much grease to be had there anyway. Sun Li’s targets for wealth were naturally the factory owners and merchants. With their resources, he gained the capital to replenish his army, recruit local garrison forces, and build a city in the pure style of the Song Empire. Through the "generous contributions" of the English tycoons, not only were the losses from the campaign fully recouped, but there was also a significant surplus.

Sun Li then extravagantly used this surplus wealth to make his wedding as opulent and extravagant as possible. After his wedding night with Victoria, Sun Li felt a deep sense of satisfaction; this kind of luxurious and wasteful life was truly something to aspire to.

However, Sun Li was naturally not satisfied with a mere English island. Soon, his gaze turned toward the vast expanse of the European continent.