Steampunk Era: Mad Abield

Continuing north from Old Shanghai is Taizhou, a magical land... Well, that’s a poetic description.

Hmm, Malin has seen it with his own eyes. It’s full of ruins, trenches, and soldiers everywhere, because further north, a massive port that has turned into a Dark Zone has twisted the entire northern part of this province.

Malin found it strange, and after asking Bixiu, received a response that left him unsure whether to laugh or cry—a group of Chaos Believers had mixed in with the refugees retreating from the Peninsula, anchoring coordinates in the refugee camp at the port as though welcoming the True God, ultimately causing the deaths of millions.

The reason Malin was unsure whether to laugh was that while many died, the vast majority were refugees from the Four Islands, as the Thainan civilians in that area had already completed their retreat, leaving only the refugees moving here. Originally, they were supposed to move further south to Hangzhou, which remained intact with enough civilians and troops. Armed civilians were being recruited en masse; in the era of Earth’s Union, universal conscription was very normal.

However, due to the Peninsula people’s actions, the high-speed rail lines north were cut off for several Thainan native legions, forcing them to fight their way through, but before they could communicate through this region, the North was completely lost. And then the entire North and most of Siberia were bombarded with nuclear bombs.

In this matter, the military of the Union was not at fault—without the nuclear bombs at that time destroying the channels, given the speed of the Chaos army’s advance, today’s Thanan people would likely be living at sea.

"The highlight of the Peninsula people in this battle was probably a Peninsula major general in the East Asia district’s staff who led the last Peninsula assault team deep into the fallen zone. They conducted tactical precision for twenty-seven channels; at the time, the Thainan army had already ignored him, but the nine assault teams sent out were all wiped out after reaching Ulan Bator due to exposure. It was he who led his men to the Tamir sanatorium and closed the final channel."

Bixiu still had one piece of news on hand, and Malin understood that there is evil in the world, but there is also good. This unknown Peninsula major general and his soldiers gave their blood for the stupidity of their compatriots.

No... those Chaos Believers are not even worthy of being called people anymore, so it’s not entirely the Peninsula people’s fault, even though there were indeed many Chaos Believers among the refugees that escaped. But many survived and even thrived in the Thainan region. For example, Malin now saw the Taizhou defense officer, whose ancestor was a Peninsula person. Over time, the pure Peninsula people in their shelter dwindled, eventually becoming Thanan in appearance, speaking Thanan official dialect more fluently than anyone else, and the only evidence of his ancestral identity was his family’s orally passed-down historical stories.

"Hello, Prince Malin, I’ve heard of your story from the Sages, it’s wonderful that you could come to help us." Li Xiangchen shook hands with Malin, "Today, we’re going to recapture the Salt Huai’an area."

According to Bixiu, two months ago, the Chaos army had just occupied it—of course, it was just another world of ruins and trenches.

The populous city in Jiangsu Province was the Zhenjiang-Nanjing metropolitan area, the main force of defense, while Taizhou was leading as the main force, striving to move towards Lianyungang. Previous aerial reconnaissance suggested new channels in that area—and now everyone knew there were indeed new channels.