The World Online

Chapter 1328 – Storm Rises in India; Who is the Fisherman?

In truth, the Peacock Dynasty did not have any room to choose.

7th month, 10th day, the Peacock King made the decision to bring back 150 thousand troops from the frontlines to defend. At the same time, he sent an envoy to New Delhi to negotiate with Ashoka.

The Peacock Dynasty hoped that Ashoka would stop his crusade and focus on the external enemy.

“When we are fighting internally, regardless of who wins or loses, it is an India internal matter. Today, the thief Great Xia is coming to create problems; he eyes Indian land, and we have to defend against him.”

“If you’re willing to stop, I’ll return all your cities. Please consider wisely; do not become the sinner of India simply because of greed.” Peacock King wrote in the letter.

His words were filled with sincerity and hope.

In order to stop the crusade, he was even willing to return all the occupied land.

Only if both sides entered a ceasefire would he be able to withdraw more troops from the frontlines to defend against Great Xia’s invasion. Otherwise, the Peacock Dynasty would completely fail to block Great Xia.

In front of the choices of survival or expansion, Peacock Dynasty naturally selected survival.

The Peacock Dynasty had high hopes toward these peace talks. After all, easily reclaiming all their lost land without losing a single soldier should be a huge temptation to Ashoka.

Hence, the Peacock King even wrote a letter to the Gupta King to request him to give up their occupied land as well to work together against Great Xia; he wrote, “Great Xia is really strong, and they have a huge appetite. We should advance and retreat together.”

Although the two dynasties belonged to different camps, they were in agreement with regards to how to deal with Great Xia.

As expected, the Gupta King replied quickly, expressing that he would send an envoy to New Delhi to discuss peace.

As such, the weight of the negotiations increased.

The only part that surprised the Peacock King was that the Gupta King only expressed the desire to talk about peace; he did not mention the returning of occupied land.

The Peacock King could understand some of the Gupta King’s thoughts.

The Gupta Dynasty was located at the Deccan Plateau, and the Ashoka Dynasty land it occupied was the most fertile. It meant a lot to them, so it was not something that they could give up so easily.

Furthermore, Great Xia had not sent troops to attack the Gupta Dynasty. Naturally, he would not be in a rush.

The Peacock King was not in a position to convince him, so he could only silently wait for changes. He believe that after waiting for three years, Great Xia definitely had a plan with their sudden attack on India.

The following battle would probably exceed everyone’s expectations.

It was impossible for the Gupta Dynasty to remain untouched. When the time comes, the Gupta King would certainly wake up.

In particular, when he thought back to how Great Xia returned the one million war prisoners to the Ashoka Dynasty, gloominess appeared in the Peacock King’s eyes.

He could feel that Great Xia had probably been planning for India since a long time ago.

“A storm has arrived.”

Thinking back to the year and a half of internal battles in India, the Peacock King could help but feel a chill run down his spine.

…

Ashoka Dynasty, Delhi.

As the only imperial city in India, the majesty of the city did not lose to any imperial city in China.

Looking out across the entire world, it was one of the top cities.

In the 7th month, Delhi became bustling due to Great Xia’s sudden invasion of Peacock Dynasty. In a short two days, two envoy teams made loud arrivals in Delhi.

This was a plan concocted by the Peacock King.

He wanted to use such a method to spread the message of the peace talks to the entire city; he wanted to gain the support of the people and increase their negotiation stakes.

Normally speaking, his actions were logical, and there would be nothing wrong with this plan.

The problem was that Great Xia was a step faster than them; Great Xia’s envoy had arrived half a month earlier.

Currently, Great Xia was already an expert at diplomatic means; no one in the world could compare to them.

The Great Xia envoy express their friendliness and said that they wanted to work with the Ashoka Dynasty to destroy the Peacock and Gupta dynasties. This suggestion directly aligned with what Ashoka wanted.

With the Ashoka Dynasty’s current strength, they could only barely face up against the two of them. However, destroying the two dynasties was out of the question.

If Great Xia was willing to step in, the battle would naturally be decided right away.

Hence, the two sides quickly signed an alliance agreement. Great Xia even sent out Zhang Yi to personally attend the ceremony to show their respect toward Ashoka.

Ashoka was naturally happy about that.

The cooperation between the two was even showing signs of developing into a honeymoon phase.

Hence, when the Peacock Dynasty envoy tried to use tricks in Delhi, it was unsurprisingly a waste of time.

Not to mention Ashoka, but they did not even get to meet an important official.

That was awkward!

The envoy team came over with a lot of confidence, but they could only run back now.

Their plan had failed before it had even begun.

Not only that, but the day that the Peacock Dynasty envoy arrived in Delhi, the Ashoka army even increased their attacks on the frontlines. They did not show any mercy.

The Peacock Dynasty had withdrawn 150 thousand troops from the frontlines, giving the Ashoka army a chance to strike.

Great Xia had sent out so many troops to attack the Peacock Dynasty, keeping up their promise from half a month ago. Why would the Ashoka king bother to negotiate for peace and be content with just recovering his lost land?

Ashoka wanted a larger part of India.

To tempt Ashoka, Great Xia mentioned in the contract that they only wanted the Gupta Dynasty’s territory when they split India. They would hand over the Peacock Dynasty’s territory to Ashoka.

“Great Xia only wishes to occupy India to control the Indian Ocean.” the envoy said honestly.

Although Ashoka did not truly believe those words, the splitting plan made him really excited. If he could occupy all of the Peacock Dynasty’s territory, not only would they recover their strength, but they would even take another step up.

…

When the Peacock King received the news, he was totally disappointed.

Facing the left and right pincer of the Ashoka Dynasty and Great Xia, the Peacock Dynasty could not defend at all, and they were forced to place their hopes on their ally, the Gupta Dynasty.

Unfortunately, Great Xia had foreseen that.

7th month, 15th day, under the protection of the India Ocean Squadron, Great Xia’s south army disembarked on the east coast of the Gupta Dynasty. Gupta Dynasty did not have the ability to bother about anything else.

Similar to the Peacock Dynasty, after a year and a half of war, their army had suffered heavy casualties. Their numbers had dropped to 700 thousand, half of which were sent to the frontlines.

In the eyes of the Gupta King, Great Xia would not target the hilly Gupta Dynasty.

Even if they wanted to fight, they would attack the Peacock Dynasty first.

Truth proved that his judgement was not wrong, and the Peacock Dynasty was the first to be attacked.

The problem was that Great Xia’s appetite was huge, and it targeted the entire India Region. Naturally, the Gupta Dynasty was not left out. Great Xia’s south front attacking had totally quashed all thoughts of them assisting the Peacock Dynasty.

All of a sudden, India welcomed a new change, going from an Ashoka Dynasty one-versus-two situation to a two-versus-two.